Senate Democrats Are Sacrificing American Safety for Partisan Politics

The United States Senate was intended, by the Framers' design, to be a "temperate and respectable body of citizens" whose judgments would be sober, statesmanlike, and guided by the welfare of the republic. Yet in April 2025, under the leadership of Senators Brian Schatz, Chris Van Hollen, Richard Blumenthal, Ruben Gallego, Adam Schiff, and Chuck Schumer, the Senate has instead become a place where narrow partisanship tramples the public good. These Senate Democrats have placed holds on approximately 318 of President Trump's nominees. The cost is not abstract. Veterans are left in limbo without critical leadership at the Department of Veterans Affairs. National security is compromised by vacancies at the Department of State. Justice is delayed and denied by an understaffed Department of Justice. The constitutional duty to provide "advice and consent" has been perverted into a weapon of obstruction, to the manifest detriment of the American people.

The figures alone are staggering. Schatz, by himself, has blocked over 300 nominees, a figure swollen still further by the actions of Van Hollen, Blumenthal, Gallego, Schiff, and Schumer. This mass obstruction comes at a time when leadership transitions must be swift and orderly, not frozen by petulant political calculations. Were the Trump administration to attempt to overcome these holds through floor votes alone, even with a favorable Senate composition, it would take as many as two years, assuming the Senate did little else, to confirm these nominees one at a time. Such a state of affairs is intolerable for a functioning government.

The human cost is clearest at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Senator Blumenthal and Representative Gallego have placed holds on all five Senate-confirmed VA positions pending as of this month. The VA is not a debating society. It is the institution charged with providing timely, effective medical care to those who have borne the battle. Vacancies at the top mean slower responses to crises, poorer implementation of reforms, and diminished oversight of sprawling hospital systems. Veterans cannot afford to wait while Senators nurse their grievances against the administration. It is not President Trump who suffers most from these holds, but the aging veteran waiting for surgery, the traumatized soldier awaiting mental health care, and the widow battling for survivor benefits.

Similarly, Senator Van Hollen's blockade of State Department nominees, overlapping with Schatz's broader assault, places America's national security in a precarious position. Ambassadors are not ornamental positions, but vital representatives who defend American interests abroad. Without confirmed ambassadors, American influence wanes, adversaries advance, and vital intelligence is lost. In an increasingly volatile world, with threats from Beijing, Tehran, and Moscow growing by the day, leaving our diplomatic posts leaderless is reckless beyond words. One need not embrace Trumpian foreign policy to recognize that a country without its full complement of ambassadors is a country inviting disaster.

Meanwhile, Senator Adam Schiff's hold on Ed Martin, nominated for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and Senator Schumer's use of the blue slip to block two U.S. Attorney nominees in New York, corrode the administration of justice. Prosecutors are the thin line between order and anarchy. Every day without confirmed leadership in these key jurisdictions is a day criminals have greater room to maneuver. Justice delayed, as the old saying goes, is justice denied. And when Americans see a Department of Justice riddled with vacancies, their faith in the rule of law itself begins to erode.

It is worth noting the bitter irony that many of the very Democrats now orchestrating these holds once condemned similar tactics with moral fervor. Senator Schatz, for instance, decried Republican holds on President Biden's nominees as "a betrayal of the American people" and "a dereliction of duty." Senator Blumenthal warned during the Biden administration that delays in confirmations "left our government dangerously vulnerable." Yet today, these same voices participate in an obstruction campaign orders of magnitude greater than anything they previously denounced. The principle, it seems, was never about the sanctity of government function. It was about power, and who wields it.

The pretexts offered for the current blockade are as thin as they are self-serving. Objections to the reorganization of USAID, complaints about proposed VA staffing reforms, and disapproval of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiatives are offered up as grave constitutional crises justifying mass nullification of the president's appointments. This is a category error. The Senate's constitutional role is to evaluate nominees on their merits, not to paralyze the executive branch over policy disputes. Elections have consequences, and one of those consequences is that the duly elected president is entitled to staff his administration.

In the absence of good faith, the cumulative effect of these holds is government by sabotage. President Trump was re-elected by the American people on November 5, 2024. His administration was certified by Congress on January 6, 2025, and he took the oath of office on January 20, 2025. Yet even now, in late April, hundreds of critical posts remain vacant. These delays are not accidents of bureaucracy. They are deliberate acts, designed to wound a presidency and, if collateral damage must fall on veterans, diplomats, or crime victims, so be it.

Some will argue that Republicans engaged in similar behavior under President Biden. It is true that individual nominees were at times delayed, scrutinized, or rejected. But there is no historical parallel to the scale and systematic nature of what Senate Democrats are now inflicting. Nor is there any serious claim that these holds are rooted in concerns about nominee qualifications. They are, instead, naked exercises in power, unconcerned with consequences.

One must also address the specious defense that "acting" officials can merely fill the void until confirmations proceed. Acting officials lack the full authority, legitimacy, and often the political capital necessary to lead effectively. Foreign leaders know the difference. Bureaucracies know the difference. Adversaries know the difference. An acting ambassador is a placeholder, not a power broker. An acting U.S. attorney cannot marshal the full force of federal law enforcement in the way a Senate-confirmed appointee can. To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand, or willfully misrepresent, the real-world workings of government.

If Senate Democrats persist in their obstruction, the Trump administration faces a grim arithmetic. Assuming even the optimistically smooth rate of two confirmations per day, an unlikely pace given Senate procedures, it would take over five months of uninterrupted Senate work to clear the backlog. In reality, with recesses, other legislative business, and inevitable partisan bickering, it could stretch well into 2027 before all nominees are addressed. The United States cannot afford such paralysis.

A republic requires more than elections. It requires that those entrusted with constitutional powers exercise them responsibly. The Senate’s role in confirmations is not a veto over presidential policy, but a safeguard against unfit appointments. When that role is abused for partisan ends, it is not merely a violation of decorum. It is a betrayal of the public trust. Senate Democrats should lift their holds immediately. If they believe a nominee is unqualified, they should argue the case on the floor and cast their votes accordingly. Otherwise, they should stand aside and let the machinery of government do its work.

The stakes are too high for gamesmanship. Veterans waiting for care, citizens seeking justice, and a nation facing myriad threats cannot be expected to pause their needs while the Senate indulges in partisan theatrics. Power may be the motive. But it is the people who pay the price.

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