Democrats block GOP efforts to curtail debate on nominations

Senate Democrats blocked Tuesday an attempt by the GOP to change the rules of the Senate to limit debate time on most of President Donald Trump's candidates by just a few hours.

The party vote is another step toward a potential power play by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who plans to radically change the rules later this week using a mysterious parliamentary maneuver.

The proposed rule change would limit the debate on most candidates to two hours instead of the 30 hours currently required. Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court appointments and appellate court judges would be exempted from the new rules.

Tuesday's approach required 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, but the next McConnell maneuver would require only a simple majority.

McConnell said Tuesday that he was taking action in response to "a systematic obstruction, not a thoughtful and targeted opposition to some exceptional appointments or rare circumstances, but to a brutal and widespread effort to delay and obstruct the people that this president defends ".

Democrats said the Republicans had violated the old rules – which required a margin of 60 votes to break the filibuster of all candidates – in order to thwart dozens of former President Barack Obama's candidates. Democrats changed the threshold of obstruction to become a simple majority in 2013 after outraged protests from Republicans such as McConnell.

According to them, shortening the time allotted to debates would allow Republicans to ignore them. The obstacles and obstacles to confirming the candidacy should be difficult, they said, to ensure that candidates are ethical and qualified, and that they respond to requests for information from senators.

"The purpose of these rules is to reject partisanship so that we can have candidates who will put the good of the country ahead of politics," said Senator Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. "If we eliminate this crucial control of our democracy by allowing the majority to pass through these appointments, we will undermine our democracy and our government."

Republicans retort that it is the Democrats who are now abusing the process by demanding the full 30 hours of debate for non-controversial choices. Often, the Senate chamber remains empty as the countdown begins. And Obama took advantage of the brevity of the debates for most appointments in a temporary arrangement between 2013 and 2014, which was perfectly suited to Democrats at the time.