Democrats took turns speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate into the early hours of Thursday morning in a show of opposition to President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the White House budget office and the new administration’s lawless broadside against key federal agencies — an assault led by unelected billionaire Elon Musk.
Facing growing pressure to use every tool available to obstruct an administration that they have characterized as authoritarian, Democratic senators are expected to take up all 30 hours of debate on Russell Vought, a right-wing extremist and Project 2025 architect who is poised to take charge of the Office of Management and Budget.
Unless Democrats give in and grant unanimous consent (UC) to end debate — as they’ve done with other Trump nominees in recent days — a vote on Vought’s confirmation won’t take place until Thursday evening. As of this writing, the Democratic speeches are still going.
“Americans voted each of us into office to fight for them,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said after speaking on the Senate floor for an hour late Wednesday. “They do not expect us to roll over and play dead.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) used his floor speech to spotlight what he described as Vought’s plan to “gut programs for working families” and “give massive tax giveaways to billionaires.”
Watch @SenJeffMerkley lay out Project 2025 Architect and OMB Director nominee Russell Vought’s three-step plan to:
— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) February 5, 2025
Gut programs for working families
Borrow trillions and run up debt
Give massive tax giveaways to billionaires pic.twitter.com/2oasfZJvfv
For experts and activists who have been urging the minority party to put up a fight in the face of Trump and Musk’s destructive rampage through the federal government, the marathon protest against Vought’s nomination was a positive sign — but not at all sufficient.
“This is a start but, to be clear, still nowhere close to maximum obstruction,” Andy Craig, an election policy fellow at the Rainey Center, wrote on social media. “No UC, on anything. No unrecorded votes, on anything. No waiving rules, on anything. Fight even on adjournments. Quorum calls every time you can. Make every dilatory motion in the books and new ones you just made up.”
“If you’re not miserable every day with long hours and tedious constant votes, you’re not making them miserable, either,” Craig added. “Make them miserable.”
While Democrats don’t have the votes in the Senate to tank Trump nominees, they can severely derail the chamber’s day-to-day functions in many ways. The progressive advocacy group Indivisible lists a number of them:
- Deny a quorum to completely freeze Senate business. If Republicans don’t have 51 votes on the floor, Democrats can walk out, preventing the Senate from doing anything at all.
- Force Republicans to waste time by making them repeatedly prove they have a quorum instead of passing harmful legislation or confirming extremist judges.
- Make governing a miserable experience for Republicans by keeping them tied up in procedural delays instead of letting them cruise through their agenda.
- Any senator can object to a unanimous consent request, forcing Republicans to take the slowest and most painful route to pass anything.
- Blocking UC forces roll-call votes, debates, and delays on even the most basic motions, eating up hours (or days) of floor time.
- It kills fast-track confirmations. Many of Trump’s judicial nominees sailed through last time because Democrats didn’t force votes on each one. This time? Make them work for it.
“The easy way to think about this is when you’re going and talking to your Democratic senator, you say ‘Hey, imagine you are Mitch McConnell in the minority, and then do what that asshole would do,'” Indivisible co-executive director Ezra Levin said at a rally earlier this week.
But Craig argued late Wednesday that Democrats “should be blowing past McConnell-level obstruction in a way that makes it look like business as usual,” including by breaking Senate rules.
“Mitch didn’t do even 1% of what could be done by a minority determined to keep the Senate grinding in circles getting absolutely nothing done,” Craig wrote.
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