Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
When Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., placed holds on Joe Biden’s Pentagon nominees to protest the agency’s radical abortion policy two years ago, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, was one of the loudest voices condemning his GOP colleague. But now that his party has lost the reins of control in Washington, Schatz has completely changed his tune on the Senate procedure.
Over the past several weeks, Hawaii’s senior senator has been slow-walking the approval of individuals nominated by President Trump to serve in his administration. Rather than allow these nominations to be advanced by Senate committees via unanimous consent, the senator’s actions effectively force them to consider each nomination one at a time.
According to the left-wing rag Axios, Schatz is doing this to “protest” what he proclaimed is the Trump White House’s “lawlessness.” He’s also accused the administration of “intentionally destroying the economy,” telling the outlet on Monday, “I don’t think we should make anything easy going forward.”
While Schatz’s efforts initially pertained to Trump’s State Department nominees, the senator expanded his holds on Monday to “include an additional 50 names” across “more than a dozen” agencies, bringing the total number of affected nominees to more than 300. Among those caught up in the Aloha State Democrat’s new holds are Scott Kupor and former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., whom Trump nominated to serve as the director of the Office of Personnel Management and inspector general of the Labor Department, respectively.
Schatz also expanded his holds to include blocking bipartisan legislation awaiting consideration by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to protest the administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development. One of the bills Schatz is hindering aims to “counter activities by the terrorist group Hezbollah in Latin America,” while another would disavow “China’s assault on Hong Kong’s democracy,” according to Axios.
“Until they start complying with the law and until I hear from Marco Rubio in the Foreign Relations Committee, we’re just not going to be cooperative,” Schatz said.
As previously indicated, Schatz’s sudden fascination with using Senate holds on a president’s nominees is a total reversal from the position he had several years ago. When Tuberville initiated holds on Biden’s military nominees to protest the Biden Pentagon’s use of taxpayer money to subsidize abortion-related travel for service members in 2023, the Hawaii Democrat assailed the Alabama Republican’s use of Senate procedure as an “abuse of the power of ‘advice and consent.’”
“Every senator has enormous power,” Schatz said during a July 2023 speech on the Senate floor. “I could probably block the defense bill this week, if I wanted to, but I won’t — you know why? Because I’m not a maniac, because I understand that when you vest someone through your voters with this kind of power, you have to be very careful how you exercise it.”
Tuberville maintained his holds on Biden’s Pentagon appointees for most of 2023. The Alabama senator was all but forced to abandon his effort later that year after several of his GOP colleagues sided with Democrats in threatening to change Senate rules to skirt the holds. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth officially terminated the Biden-era policy in January.
Following Tuberville’s announcement that he would be lifting holds on most of Biden’s nominees, Schatz again attacked the Republican senator for “continu[ing] to block the confirmation of some of our most senior military leaders.”
“This stunt has to end,” Schatz said.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood