After changing procedural rules, Senate confirms 48 Trump nominees

The Senate approved the first group of nominees from Donald Trump after changing procedural rules. 48 people will move to lower-ranking executive positions, such as deputy assistant secretaries, ambassadors, and deputy directors, among others. This is the first vote after the Republicans managed to speed up the process to avoid what many legislators defined as a "blockade" by the Democrats.

After months of complaints about the Democrats' attitude toward lower office nominees, upper chamber Republicans decided to use the nuclear option to change the confirmation rules. The changes include a simple majority (half plus one) for such lower-ranking nominations and allowing large group confirmations.

The so-called 'nuclear option' is a legislative mechanism used in the Senate to make rule changes with a simple majority. As reported by The Hill, Republicans were inspired by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Angus King (R-ME), who had introduced a similar proposal two years ago.

As for the vote, it ended with 51 in favor and 47 against, allowing the confirmation of the group of 48 nominees of Donald Trump. Still pending are 125 nominees, who are expected to be confirmed in different groups over the next few weeks.

"Republicans have fixed a broken process and restored the Senate precedent that applied to previous presidents—and that is allowing … a majority of a president’s nominees to be confirmed expeditiously," Republican Majority Leader John Thune said of the matter.

"Today is the first slate of nominees. There will be more to come. And we’ll ensure that President Trump’s administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors," the South Dakota Republican added.

Among those confirmed are Kimberly Guilfoyle and Callista Gingrich, who will serve as ambassadors to Greece and Switzerland, respectively. Also confirmed was Jonathan Morrison, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).