Democrats held the Senate floor overnight Wednesday and into Thursday morning to protest the nomination of Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
Cloture was invoked Wednesday afternoon on a 53-47 party-line vote, limiting debate on the Vought nomination to 30 hours. Democrats decided not to yield time and scheduled speakers to keep the floor occupied through the night.
If all the debate time is used, Vought will likely be confirmed around 7 p.m. Thursday.
“Russell Vought was born to make corruption safe again,” freshman Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said in one of the late-night speeches. “Vought believes that all of the power in the executive branch belongs to the president and the president alone.”
Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Christopher S. Murphy of Connecticut took what’s been a bit of a traditional late shift, with Murphy scheduled to keep the floor occupied from 2-5 a.m.
They spoke on a variety of topics, with Schatz at one point focusing on the efforts of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a budget-slashing task force led by billionaire Elon Musk.
“Why doesn’t government run like a business?” Schatz said, referring to questions asked by the “tech bros” now involved with the executive branch decision-making. “Let me tell you why: because if you ran government like a business, you would shut down every rural hospital. If you ran government like a business, you would actually not have a national transportation network.”
