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The U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted 51-47 to confirm more than 100 of President Donald Trump’s nominees as the partial government shutdown entered its seventh day.
The nominations passed by a 51-47 margin. Republican Senators John Curtis of Utah and Tim Sheehy of Montana were absent from the vote, and the reason for their absence was not immediately known.
The batch of 107 nominees included more than two dozen ambassadorial appointments and over a dozen U.S. attorneys, according to The Hill. Among those confirmed were Sergio Gor, who will serve as U.S. ambassador to India and special envoy for South and Central Asian affairs, and former Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker, confirmed as ambassador to the Bahamas.
The Senate’s action came after weeks of stalled confirmations. In September, senators approved 48 of Trump’s nominees, but the process slowed amid partisan gridlock.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Democrats had previously “shut down the Senate floor,” freezing confirmations before the shutdown began. “Senate Republicans have now confirmed 107 of President Trump’s nominees, ending the Democrats’ confirmation blockade,” Barrasso said in a statement.
Senate Republicans adopted a procedural change allowing the majority party to confirm nominees en bloc, voting on them as a single package rather than one by one.
“CONFIRMED: 107 Trump nominees en bloc—meaning in one package vote,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., wrote on X. “Senate business continues, even on day seven of the Schumer Shutdown.”
The Senate previously approved 48 Trump nominees in a similar vote last month, RSBN reported. The confirmed nominees include Jonathan Morrison to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Kimberly Guilfoyle as the U.S. ambassador to Greece. Guilfoyle, a former California prosecutor and television commentator, previously served as the director of fundraising for Trump’s 2020 campaign.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said at the time that the chamber would continue working through more of Trump’s nominees. “And we’ll ensure that President Trump’s administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors,” he said.
