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Fact check/Did Harry Reid make it easier to confirm President Trump's Cabinet and Supreme Court nominees?
Fact check: Did Harry Reid make it easier to confirm President Trump's Cabinet and Supreme Court nominees?
Sen. Ted Cruz & Mark Levin (photo by Gage Skidmore)
February 28, 2017
By Fact Check by Ballotpedia staff
On February 23, 2017, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spoke with radio host Mark Levin at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in what was billed as a Conversation about the Constitution.[1] During their roughly 20-minute talk, Cruz commented on the confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, noting that many of the confirmations were possible because of a change to Senate rules instituted in 2013 by then-Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Cruz said:
| “ | Harry Reid employed the so-called 'nuclear option,' broke the Senate rules to change the Senate rules, lowered the threshold for confirmation from 60 votes to 51 votes. And it is a direct result of Harry Reid that we now have the most conservative cabinet in decades. And so, if I can be a little presumptuous, Mark [Levin,] let me on behalf of CPAC thank Harry Reid. Harry Reid, thank you for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. And also we should be thanking Harry Reid for EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and very, very soon I look forward to thanking Harry Reid for Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch.[1][2] | ” |
Is Cruz correct? Did a change to Senate rules sponsored by Reid make possible the confirmations of Sessions, Pruitt, and DeVos, and could it help Neil Gorsuch be confirmed?
Cruz is correct that the rule change has allowed the three Trump nominees he named to win confirmation with fewer votes than would have been required under the previous rule.[3] Three other nominees also won confirmation with fewer than 60 votes: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (56 votes), Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (53 votes), and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price (52 votes).
Cruz is incorrect that the rule change could affect a confirmation vote on Gorsuch. As adopted by the Senate in 2013, the new rule does not apply to nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court.[4] [5]
Background
In 2013, Senate Democrats accused the Republican minority of obstructing a number of President Barack Obama’s nominees, including two to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.[6] Speaking on the floor of the Senate on November 21, 2013, Reid said, “During this Congress—the 113th Congress—the United States Senate has wasted an unprecedented amount of time on procedural hurdles and partisan obstruction…. Even one of the Senate’s most basic duties—confirmation of presidential nominees—has become completely unworkable.” Reid then proposed a change to Senate rules: “This rule change will make cloture for all nominations other than Supreme Court nominees a majority threshold vote—yes or no.”[7] At the time, a three-fifths vote (typically 60 votes) to invoke cloture and cut off any possible filibuster was required to confirm nominees.[3]
On November 23, 2013, the Senate voted 52-48 to rescind the three-fifths vote requirement for cloture votes on the confirmation of presidential appointees, allowing for confirmation on the basis of a simple majority vote (51 votes) on nominees other than those for the Supreme Court.[3]
There are currently 52 Republicans and 46 Democrats in the Senate, as well as two independent Senators who caucus with the Democrats.[8] If the old rule had remained in place, Republicans would have had to attract a minimum of 8 votes from outside their party to confirm presidential appointees.
Appearing on Fox News on January 31, the same day President Trump announced the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment on whether the rule change might extended to Supreme Court nominees. “I’m not going to answer that,” McConnell replied when asked if he would eliminate the 60 vote threshold to facilitate Gorsuch’s confirmation.[9] The following day, President Trump said he would encourage McConnell to “go nuclear,” if a cloture vote is needed to overcome a filibuster of Gorshuch’s confirmation vote.[10]
Trump nominees’ confirmations
The lowered threshold for cabinet confirmations has resulted in approval of six of President Trump's cabinet nominees with fewer than 60 votes. Those six are: Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who received 52 votes), Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (51 votes), EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt (52 votes), Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (56 votes), Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (53 votes), and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price (52 votes). [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]
However, when Cruz stated “very, very soon I look forward to thanking Harry Reid for Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch,” he overstated the nuclear option’s application. The lowering of the cloture vote threshold in 2013 applied to all confirmations except U.S. Supreme Court nominees.[3][4]
Conclusion
On February 23, 2017, Sen. Ted Cruz thanked former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for sponsoring the 2013 Senate rule change that lowered the number of votes needed to confirm a presidential nominee, saying that the change allowed three of President Trump's cabinet nominees to be approved with fewer than the 60 votes that had been necessary before the change, and it might also be used to facilitate the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.[1] Cruz is correct that the change allowed the three nominees he named, as well as three others, to be confirmed with fewer than 60 votes. But Cruz is incorrect about the rules change potentially helping in the confirmation of Gorsuch. It does not apply to the confirmation of a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
See also
- Filibuster
- Appointment confirmation process
- Fact check/Does Betsy DeVos owe Ohio taxpayers $5 million?
Sources and Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 CNS News, "Ted Cruz at CPAC: Thank You, Harry Reid, for the 'Most Conservative Cabinet in Decades'," February 23, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Politico, "Senate goes for 'nuclear option'," November 22, 2013
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Congress.gov, "PN527 - 113th Congress (2013-2014)," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Politico, "Partisan battleground: Court picks," November 10, 2013
- ↑ Politico, "Partisan battleground: Court picks," November 10, 2013
- ↑ Talking Points Memo, "Harry Reid's Full Speech Calling For Filibuster Reform (TEXT, VIDEO)," November 21, 2013
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "United States Senate," accessed February 28, 2017
- ↑ Roll Call, "McConnell Leaves Door Open on Supreme Court Nuclear Option," February 1, 2017
- ↑ The New York Times, "Trump Says ‘Go Nuclear’ as Democrats Gird for Gorsuch Fight," February 1, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Jeff Sessions," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Betsy DeVos," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Scott Pruitt," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Rex Tillerson," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Steven Mnuchin," accessed February 24, 2017
- ↑ Ballotpedia, "Tom Price (Georgia)," accessed February 24, 2017
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
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