Democratic-leaning congressional opposition to the Trump administration, 2017

Opposition to the Trump administration (2017)
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Days after the 2016 election, politicians, organizations, and others began to strategize about opposing Republican President Donald Trump's policies and administration. This page chronicles tactics that members of the U.S. Congress developed to oppose Trump's policy agenda. This page was last updated in June 2017.

Congressional opposition

• On January 9, 2017, Democrats in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House introduced legislation to "require the President and Vice President to disclose and divest any potential financial conflicts of interest." In the U.S. Senate, the bill was introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) with 23 other Democratic senators as cosponsors. The U.S. House bill was introduced by Rep. Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) with five other cosponsors. The Senate version of the bill specified that, should the bill be passed into law, noncompliance of the act would "constitute a high crime or misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution of the United States."

• On June 14, 2017, 196 Democrats in the House and Senate filed a federal lawsuit alleged that Trump was in violation of the foreign emoluments clause in the Constitution. The members of Congress alleged that, because Trump maintained ties to his global businesses, he was actively receiving benefits from foreign governments that used his hotels. They also charged that Trump did not seek congressional approval to accept the payments to his companies. Part of the suit read: "Although Defendant Donald J. Trump has accepted the privilege of occupying the highest office in the land, he is not obeying the same rules as the federal officers and employees described above or following the example of compliance set by former presidents. He has refused to divest from his businesses and instead continues to accept financial payments and other benefits from foreign states through his many business entities without first obtaining the consent of Congress."

U.S. Senate-specific opposition

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer

Opposition to Trump Cabinet nominations

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) outlined a Democratic strategy targeting eight of Trump's Cabinet nominees. According to The Washington Post, Schumer indicated that Democrats would slow down the confirmation process for Trump's nominees who did not disclose what Democrats considered to be sufficient financial and ethics reports. Schumer told the paper, "Any attempt by Republicans to have a series of rushed, truncated hearings before Inauguration Day and before the Congress and public have adequate information on all of them is something Democrats will vehemently resist. ... If Republicans think they can quickly jam through a whole slate of nominees without a fair hearing process, they’re sorely mistaken."

• Schumer indicated that Senate Democrats would oppose eight of Trump's nominees:
  • Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state nominee
  • Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), attorney general nominee
  • Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget nominee
  • Betsy DeVos, education secretary nominee
  • Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), secretary of health and human services nominee
  • Andy Puzder, labor secretary nominee
  • Steve Mnuchin, treasury secretary nominee
  • Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Environmental Protection Agency administrator nominee
• Seven of the eight targeted nominees were confirmed by the Senate. Andy Puzder withdrew his nomination following reports that he did not have enough support among Senate Republicans to be confirmed.

Opposition to Trump executive branch nominees

As of March 27, 2018, 78 of President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees who had been approved by the appropriate Senate committees had not gotten a confirmation vote on the Senate floor. Under Senate procedure, the majority leader asks for unanimous consent for the Senate to move to a confirmation vote on a nominee. If a single senator objects to the unanimous consent motion, a cloture vote ensues, which then requires 30 hours of floor debate. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Cloture votes used to be almost unheard of for nominations other than judges. At this point in the past four presidencies combined, only 15 executive-branch nominees were confirmed after cloture. Yet in the current Congress, Democrats have already invoked cloture on more than 50 Trump nominees. Their goal is simply to slow the formation of a GOP government and soak up valuable Senate floor time.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that 43 percent of Trump’s nominees were waiting for confirmation votes. According to the Journal, she also said that “there have been 102 fewer confirmations so far than in even the slowest recent Administration.”

In response to the slow confirmation process, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) proposed changing Senate procedure to reduce the 30 hours of debate on nominees to eight. According to the Journal, “This was the standard in 2013-2014 after Republicans then in the minority agreed to a request from Majority Leader Harry Reid, but that deal lapsed with the last Congress.” Lankford’s proposal would need 60 votes to change the rule for the remainder of the 115th Congress and 67 for a permanent rule change.

Opposition to Supreme Court nominee

See also: Supreme Court vacancy, 2017: An overview

• In an interview with MSNBC on January 3, 2017, Schumer said that Senate Democrats would uniformly vote against any Trump nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States who was not what Schumer described as mainstream. Schumer said, “We are not going to settle on a Supreme Court nominee. If they don’t appoint someone who’s really good, we’re gonna oppose him tooth and nail. … It’s hard for me to imagine a nominee that Donald Trump would choose that would get Republican support that we could support.” When asked if he would work to “hold the seat open,” Schumer replied, “Absolutely.”

• On January 31, 2017, President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, to serve on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee were held from March 20-23, 2017.

• On March 23, 2017, Schumer stated that he would support a Democratic filibuster in an effort to prevent Gorsuch's confirmation.

Floor debate

See also: Neil Gorsuch nomination and confirmation

• On April 4, 2017, in a 55-44 vote, the U.S. Senate passed a procedural motion to begin debate on Gorsuch's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court on the floor of the Senate. Four Democratic senators—Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—voted with 51 of 52 Republican senators to pass the motion.

• On April 6, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on a Democratic filibuster of Gorsuch's nomination. To break the filibuster, 60 senators were required to agree to invoke cloture. Fifty-five senators—51 Republicans and four Democrats—voted to invoke cloture. The Democratic senators who voted with the Republicans were Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.).

• During the course of the floor debate, Schumer made a series of parliamentary inquiries and motions in an effort to postpone a vote on Gorsuch's nomination. His motions to delay a vote failed.

• On April 6, McConnell invoked the nuclear option, a change installing a rule that lowered the threshold for ending debate from 60 senators to 51 senators. Under the new threshold, the Senate subsequently voted to end debate on Gorsuch's nomination.

• Following the vote, Schumer stated, "Today's vote is a cautionary tale about how unbridled partisan escalation can ultimately overwhelm our basic inclination to work together, and frustrate our efforts to pull back, blocking us from steering the ship of the Senate away from the rocks."

Confirmation

• On Friday, April 7, McConnell moved to close debate on the nominee. That motion passed. The Senate subsequently voted to confirm Gorsuch on a recorded 54-45 vote. Three Democratic senators joined with 51 Republican senators in voting to confirm Gorsuch: Joe Donnelly (Ind.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), and Joe Manchin (W. Va.). Gorsuch took his judicial oaths of office on Monday, April 10, 2017.

Opposition to Obamacare repeal and replacement

• In a January 4, 2017, interview with Politico, Schumer announced that Democrats would not work to make minor changes to a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act, saying, “Obviously they’re [Democrats] not going to say we won’t look at anything. But the idea of just tweaking a Republican plan that takes away these benefits, the bottom line is there is virtual unanimity in our caucus that we’re all from Missouri: Show me. If they show us a plan, and it’s a plan that we can live with, of course. But we’re not going to sit down in a room with them once they repeal and say let’s figure out a joint plan.” Schumer also indicated that Democrats would stage public rallies around the theme that Republican healthcare policy would “Make America Sick Again.”

Federal funding bill, March 2017

• As the Senate worked to develop a funding bill in March 2017, Schumer sent a letter—also signed by Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Debbie Stabenow (Mich.), and Patrick Leahy (Vt.)—saying they would not support a funding bill that included spending for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border or any budget riders that would "roll back protections for our veterans, environment, consumers, and workers and prohibit funds for critical healthcare services for women through Planned Parenthood. We strongly oppose the inclusion of such riders in any of the must-pass appropriations bills that fund the government."

Jeff Merkley

Opposition to Supreme Court nominee

See also: U.S. senators on Neil Gorsuch's nomination

• On January 30, 2017, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said that he would filibuster any choice Trump made to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court unless Trump nominated Merrick Garland, the judge President Barack Obama nominated who did not receive a hearing in the Senate. Merkley told Politico, "This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat. We will use every lever in our power to stop this."
• During the Senate floor debate over President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, Merkley spoke on the floor for 15 hours and 28 minutes. His speech began at 6:45 p.m. on April 4, 2017, and continued until 10:15 a.m. on April 5, 2017. According to a report in Roll Call, Merkley’s was the eighth-longest speech in the Senate since 1900. Gorsuch was ultimately confirmed by the Senate on April 7, 2017.

Federal court nominations

• In May 2017, Trump nominated 10 conservative judges to federal courts, and Senate Democrats announced their intention to block the nominations. Because of rules changes in 2013, the Senate required 51 votes for confirmation, but Senate Democrats announced that they would use the blue slip process to block appointments from Minnesota and Michigan. Those states, which were represented by two Democratic senators, could block the nomination by turning in two unfavorable opinions of the nominee on their blue slips (which are official opinions of federal judicial nominees from the nominee's state).
• On November 14, 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R) moved forward with scheduling hearings for two federal judicial nominees—despite having received negative blue slips from one of each of the nominee's home state senators. "Some of my Democratic colleagues and left-wing outside groups mistakenly assert that the blue slip affords a home state senator veto power over a nominee. That is not true," stated Grassley.
• By December 14, 2017, the Senate had confirmed 12 of Trump's federal court nominees—the highest number of federal judicial confirmations during a president's first year in office. Presidents Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy both confirmed 11 federal judicial nominees during the first year of their respective presidencies.
• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) later expressed her concern over the speed of the confirmations. "Republicans went from delaying all nominees to cramming them through at a breakneck pace," she stated.

Procedural delays to oppose health care repeal plan, June 2017

• On June 19, 2017, Senate Democrats began to delay Senate proceedings in an effort to force the Republican healthcare plan into a committee. The plan, which was being written without Democratic input, had yet to be revealed to the Senate. Politico reported that Democrats intended to object to all unanimous consent requests and would block committee hearings from extending past the first two hours. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the procedural tactics were an effort to force Republicans to discuss the plan in public. He said, "These are merely the first steps we're prepared to take. ... If Republicans won't relent and debate their health care bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn't expect business as usual in the Senate."

U.S. House-specific opposition

Nancy Pelosi

• In March 2017, after Republicans unveiled their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) began working to oppose the legislation by targeting Republican representatives from states where Medicaid was expanded under the ACA. Pelosi also coordinated efforts to force votes on amendments to the bill during committee markups in the bill's early weeks.
• On March 13, 2017, Pelosi announced that she had hired Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne as her communications director and senior advisor. Pelosi described Etienne's role as acting "to lead House Democrats’ efforts to expose the dangerous and incompetent agenda of the Trump administration." Etienne was hired to focus on oversight, ethics, and Russia in her work dealing with the Trump administration.

Committee markups on American Health Care Act

• On March 8, 2017, the first planned day of committee markups on the American Health Care Act, the Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Democrats in the House worked to stall the bill's progress by forcing committee and floor votes, requiring the bill to be read out loud, and requesting that the bill's name change to the "Republican Pay More For Less Care Act." The House Democrats also began proposing a number of amendments to the bill, including one that would guarantee no tax increase for those making under $250,000 and one that would make the bill available to the House for 72 hours before a vote.

Congressional political organization opposition

Congressional Black Caucus

See also: Congressional Black Caucus

Opposition to Jeff Sessions nomination for attorney general

• On January 6, 2017, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), a 527 political group of black members of Congress, announced it would oppose Trump's nominee for attorney general, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R). CBC Chairman Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) announced, "We are adamantly opposed to Jeff Sessions to be attorney general of United States. ... We will hold those who vote to confirm him accountable."

See also

• Opposition to the Trump administration
• U.S. Senate
• U.S. House
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)