Thune: Senate Republicans Plan Aggressive Schedule to Confirm Trump Nominees, Enact Agenda

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke at the Senate Republican leadership press conference about the aggressive schedule Senate Republicans have planned for 2025 in order to confirm President Trump's nominees and move his agenda through Congress. Thune noted that next year's schedule stands in contrast to how Democrats have managed the Senate this year, where important work has piled up untouched for months.

Thune's remarks:

"As most of you know, last week we held an issues conference with Republican senators where we talked about the path forward, we talked about confirming President Trump's nominees so that they can hit the ground running and begin to implement his agenda, and we talked about our legislative agenda for next year as well.

"And the one thing I can tell you coming out of that conference is Republicans are united around making sure that President Trump's nominees are put in place and ready to roll up their sleeves and go to work, and that we also are prepared to take care of the people's business in this country and move forward with an agenda that will help get the country back on track when it comes to the economy, when it comes to energy, when it comes to national security, when it comes to the border.

"You will expect us to be moving forcefully and aggressively forward with an agenda that addresses those important concerns, concerns on which the American people voted in this last election. And I will tell you, we've got a schedule, which I think you've seen.

"It's a pretty aggressive schedule in terms of the number of days we're going to be here, but it stands in stark contrast to the way that Senator Schumer and the Democrats have run the Senate for the last couple of years.

"If you look at where we are today, there is so much unfinished business.

"We have the National Defense Authorization bill we haven't considered yet; it's been available since June. The Senate Armed Services Committee reported it out in June, ready for floor consideration, haven't taken it up on the floor of the Senate - obviously, a decision made by the Democrats.

"Same thing is true with all the spending bills. Eleven of the 12 were reported out of the Appropriations Committee last summer, available for floor consideration. We could have had them on the floor, but like everything else, that's languished.

"Farm bill, expired. Lot of farmers and ranchers out there wondering what's going to happen with no farm bill. Water Resources Development Act, same thing. Supplemental assistance for disaster.

"You can go right down the list of the things that the Democrats didn't get done because they have been worried about elections for the last six months and not concerned about legislating on behalf of the American people.

"So we've got a bit of a pileup. We're going to have to sort through this.

"But the one thing I can tell you about next year is it is going to be different. The American people, I will tell you, this is not - the way the Senate operates today is not the way it's going to be operating in the future. We aim to fix that, and it's time, high time, that we start getting the American people's work done.

"And if the Democrats and Senator Schumer in the last waning weeks of this year aren't going to do it, we will take it up, and we will take the pileup that they've left us and deal with it next year."

Permalink: https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2024/12/thune-senate-republicans-plan-aggressive-schedule-to-confirm-trump-nominees-enact-agenda