{"id":1372,"date":"2026-07-20T09:07:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1372"},"modified":"2026-07-20T09:07:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T09:07:35","slug":"the-senate-is-working-more-on-party-line-nominations-and-less-on-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1372","title":{"rendered":"The Senate Is Working More on Party-Line Nominations \u2014 and Less on Legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The Senate is known as the world\u2019s greatest deliberative body, but lately it\u2019s not debating much and is largely holding party-line votes on nominees for the administration and the judiciary, a NOTUS review of Senate voting patterns shows.<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1366\">U.S. Service Member Dies in Iran Conflict, the Third This Weekend<\/a><\/p><p>NOTUS examined hundreds of roll-call votes taken in 2021 and 2022 under a Democratic trifecta and in 2025 and 2026 in Republican-controlled Washington and found that the Senate is voting more frequently on Cabinet and judicial appointments than on legislation, regardless of the party in power.<\/p><div>\n<div><iframe aria-label=\"Small multiple column chart\" data-external=\"1\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"611\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-yrPfs\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/yrPfs\/4\/\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Most Votes are Nominations\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Data from the Congressional Research Service shows that nominations made up less than 20% of the total roll-call votes prior to 2013, when the Senate lowered the threshold to a simple majority for most federal judges and executive branch nominations. By the end of 2024, <span><u>that number topped 60%.<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<section>\n<div>\n<h2>\n<span>Trending<\/span>\n<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Harmeet Dhillon\" class=\"wp-image-1151\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/56eae6d2dac40b2ce0fe4948f1ffffc2-768x512.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/56eae6d2dac40b2ce0fe4948f1ffffc2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/56eae6d2dac40b2ce0fe4948f1ffffc2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/56eae6d2dac40b2ce0fe4948f1ffffc2.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><h3>\n<span>\n                      How Trump Transformed the DOJ\u2019s Civil Rights Office\n                    <\/span>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mike Lawler\" class=\"wp-image-1370\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/66e1d809c416f5866f2d4c8a12e939f3-768x512.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/66e1d809c416f5866f2d4c8a12e939f3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/66e1d809c416f5866f2d4c8a12e939f3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/66e1d809c416f5866f2d4c8a12e939f3.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><h3>\n<span>\n                      Mike Lawler Has a Plan to Survive in New York\n                    <\/span>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Members of Patriot Front ride the metro as a commuter looks on.\" class=\"wp-image-1140\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a83d84194055dedfdd98b2e70239cb6c-768x512.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a83d84194055dedfdd98b2e70239cb6c-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a83d84194055dedfdd98b2e70239cb6c-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a83d84194055dedfdd98b2e70239cb6c.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><h3>\n<span>\n                      The Woman in the Photo Wanted to Be Alone. Instead, She Went Viral.\n                    <\/span>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium_large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"DOJ building in Washington, D.C.\" class=\"wp-image-1371\" height=\"512\" src=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cb62c15f6afd375631fb7de04e0e1796-768x512.jpg\" width=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cb62c15f6afd375631fb7de04e0e1796-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cb62c15f6afd375631fb7de04e0e1796-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/cb62c15f6afd375631fb7de04e0e1796.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><h3>\n<span>\n                      DOJ Issues Nationwide Threat to Prosecute Local Election Officials\n                    <\/span>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>\u201cThere has been a decades-long transformation of [the Senate],\u201d Casey Burgat, a politics professor at George Washington University, said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a huge atrophying of the lawmaking power of individual senators and of the Senate as a whole.\u201d<\/p><p>Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), the Democratic whip who has served in the Senate for nearly 30 years, told NOTUS that the increased focus on nominations has detracted from legislating.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s gotten to the point where we spend most of our time talking about nominations,\u201d Durbin said.<\/p><p>Gregory Koger, a political scientist who studies the Senate\u2019s 60-vote voting threshold, the filibuster, said that greater polarization is responsible for the meltdown in the Senate\u2019s ability to pass laws. The number of competitive seats across the country has shrunk to historic lows, according to <span><u>the Cook Political Report<\/u><\/span>.<\/p><p>Lawmakers no longer have to compete as aggressively for moderate voters or members of the opposing party, and bipartisan collaboration has become a liability rather than an asset in tenuous primaries, Koger added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncreasingly there\u2019s a downside risk from an angry, disappointed partisan base, on both sides, for compromising,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), who chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee, agreed, telling NOTUS that bipartisanship has declined throughout her nearly 12 years in the upper chamber.<\/p><p>\u201cThere\u2019s certain issues that we can go bipartisan, but most recently, even those are getting shut down. Everything is about a political advantage,\u201d Capito said.<\/p><p>Senators are instead spending more time voting on partisan proposals offered by the minority party. The NOTUS review of roll-call votes found that Senate Democrats have forced more than 30% of the roll-call votes in 2026 \u2013\u2013 up from under 20% in 2025, which was similar to the number of Republican-forced votes under Democratic control.<\/p><p>\u201cYour whole goal is to make them look bad,\u201d Burgat said. \u201cTo not help, to obstruct, because that\u2019s what your voters want. It helps you as a party maintain a better electoral strategy heading into campaign season, and it\u2019s always campaign season.\u201d<\/p><div>\n<div><iframe aria-label=\"Stacked column chart\" data-external=\"1\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"495\" id=\"datawrapper-chart-zzgVq\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/zzgVq\/5\/\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Democratic Minority Forced More Votes in 2026\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><p>Work on bipartisan legislation has been steadily decreasing since 2009. Republicans, then led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), decided it would be politically advantageous to block any legislation and nominees proposed by then-President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n<p>That strategy was followed by a change in the Senate\u2019s nomination process, lowering the 60-vote threshold to a simple majority vote for most federal judicial nominees. Later, Republicans eliminated the filibuster for nominees to the Supreme Court.<\/p><p>In 2025, Senate Republicans voted to make it easier to confirm executive branch nominees in groups under a simple majority. Senate Majority Leader John Thune <span><u>announced in April<\/u><\/span> that the Senate had nearly cleared President Donald Trump\u2019s nominations backlog and that leadership was set to begin a four-week push to confirm more before summer recess in August.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like that then makes the Senate more efficient so it has more time to legislate,\u201d Koger said. \u201cIt\u2019s mostly so they can approve more nominations.\u201d<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1362\">Border Czar Says ICE Agents Will Wear Body Cams \u2018Whenever Possible\u2019<\/a><\/p><div>\n<\/div><p>A decline in bipartisanship has also led to both Democratic and Republican majorities legislating more aggressively through the budget reconciliation process over the past two decades. The maneuver allows leadership to bypass the Senate\u2019s 60-vote filibuster and pass tax and spending priorities primarily along partisan lines.<\/p><p>The Senate has <span><u>voted on five approved reconciliation bills<\/u><\/span> since 2017 and 12 in total since 2001, including two so far this year alone. The upper chamber passed its first major party-line bill in 1980 and passed only nine over the following two decades, according to the Senate\u2019s list of \u201cvote-a-ramas.\u201d<\/p><p>Steven Smith, a political scientist who studies the Senate, told NOTUS that today\u2019s expanded use of the reconciliation tool began back in 2001, when congressional Republicans employed the process to pass the first wave of tax cuts under then-President George W. Bush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s gradually blossomed into one or more reconciliation bills carrying the bulk of a president\u2019s agenda,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBetween reconciliation, appropriations and nominations, you get a very big chunk of the roll-call voting record in the Senate.\u201d<\/p><p>Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), a moderate Democrat who has led bipartisan negotiations on issues like infrastructure, health care and foreign policy since she joined the Senate in 2009, told NOTUS that she\u2019s seen a breakdown in good-faith talks on Capitol Hill because of the uptick in party-line bills.<\/p><p>\u201cIt is not a good way to approach getting things done around here,\u201d Shaheen said. \u201cIt becomes very, by design, partisan. It doesn\u2019t allow for debate and for working together.\u201d<\/p><p>The expanded use of party-line legislating has contributed to the declining power of the Senate\u2019s committees. In years past, individual senators from both parties negotiated legislation in groups behind closed doors. Now, Senate leadership drives bills forward, injecting a more partisan lens to the process.<\/p><p>\u201cUltimately the [outcome] of these monster reconciliation bills, that try to impose as much of the president\u2019s program as possible, is that it limits the number of members who have a meaningful role in designing public policy,\u201d Smith said.<\/p><p>Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the president pro tempore of the Senate, where he has served for more than 45 years, pushed back on the assertion that the number of party-line bills has increased. He said reconciliation has always been the go-to when it doesn\u2019t seem like a bill can get to 60 votes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as reconciliation, it hasn\u2019t changed much,\u201d Grassley told NOTUS. \u201cI think we\u2019ve had \u2018vote-a-ramas\u2019 ever since I can remember.\u201d Vote-a-ramas are a long series of amendment votes tied to reconciliation bills.<\/p><p>Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), who is in line to take over as chair of the Senate Budget Committee following the death of Lindsey Graham, said that he expects the upper chamber will continue to use the maneuver.<\/p><div>\n<\/div><p>\u201cIt\u2019s probably going to be the only tool because Democrats are completely obstructionist and being obnoxious and not doing what\u2019s in the best interests of the nation,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p><p>But the scope of what is included in those spending bills has expanded. For example, Senate Republicans funded the Department of Homeland Security using reconciliation after bipartisan negotiations to fund the agency fell apart. <span><u>According to the Congressional Research Service<\/u><\/span>, it was the first time senators replaced the traditional appropriations process with a party-line bill after they couldn\u2019t secure funding for certain government agencies.<\/p><p>The unraveling of the appropriations process followed two of the longest government shutdowns in history and could drive majorities even further toward partisan funding efforts. Appropriations measures are still considered some of the few must-pass bipartisan bills and are negotiated in committee.<\/p><p>\u201cThat is not how it works,\u201d Durbin said about bypassing committees for party-line bills. \u201cWe\u2019ve ended up with a situation virtually where it\u2019s used for everything. We\u2019ve pushed the lever way too much.\u201d<\/p><p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1360\">Maine\u2019s Troy Jackson Is on a Path to Become Senate Nominee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The decades-long Senate trend toward less legislating is the result of extreme partisanship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Senate Is Working More on Party-Line Nominations \u2014 and Less on Legislation - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=1372\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Senate Is Working More on Party-Line Nominations \u2014 and Less on Legislation - 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