WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans pushed through 107 of President Trump’s nominees in a single vote on October 7, 2025, advancing ambassadors, prosecutors, and agency officials while 750,000 federal workers sat furloughed during a week-old government shutdown.
The 51-47 party-line vote cleared a backlog of appointments that had stalled for months under Democratic resistance. Among those confirmed: former NFL star Herschel Walker as ambassador to the Bahamas, Trump advisor Sergio Gor as ambassador to India, and former Border Patrol union president Brandon Judd as ambassador to Chile.
The confirmations came one week into what would become the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, a 43-day standoff over federal spending that paralyzed agencies while the Senate maintained its focus on filling administration posts.
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Republicans Rewrote The Rules
The mass confirmation became possible only after Senate Republicans triggered the “nuclear option” on September 11, changing chamber rules to allow batch approvals of nominees with a simple majority vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune led the 53-45 vote to rewrite precedent, arguing that Democrats had frozen the confirmation process by demanding individual floor votes for nearly every nominee. The change applies to subcabinet positions, ambassadors, and U.S. attorneys but excludes Cabinet secretaries and federal judges.
Democrats tried to negotiate a compromise. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar proposed allowing 10 to 15 nominees per batch, and Republicans signaled willingness to accept the framework. The deal collapsed when Democrats couldn’t secure full caucus support to move forward that day.
“How much time is enough?” Thune asked on the Senate floor before Republicans proceeded with the rules change anyway.
Republicans first tested the new system on September 18, confirming 48 nominees at once, including Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Greece and Callista Gingrich as ambassador to Switzerland.
Shutdown Didn’t Stop Confirmations
The federal government shut down at 12:01 AM on October 1 after the Senate failed to pass competing funding bills. Lawmakers remained deadlocked over Trump’s use of rescissions to cut federal spending, disputes about expiring health care subsidies, and broader budget fights.
On day one of the shutdown, the Senate confirmed Hung Cao as undersecretary of the Navy in a 52-45 vote. The retired Navy captain and former Virginia Senate candidate had been pulled from the larger batch after Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski opposed him, forcing a separate vote.
Six days later, Republicans deployed the batch system again. The October 7 vote confirmed 107 nominees simultaneously, including 29 ambassadors, 16 U.S. attorneys, and multiple undersecretaries across federal agencies.
Walker, who lost a 2022 Senate race in Georgia, becomes the first Senate-confirmed ambassador to the Bahamas in 15 years. Gor, who ran Trump’s personnel office, takes on India along with a special envoy role covering South and Central Asia. Judd spent years leading the union representing Border Patrol agents before his diplomatic appointment.
Also confirmed: Bill Bazzi, the Dearborn Heights mayor who endorsed Trump during outreach to Arab American voters in 2024, as ambassador to Tunisia. Paul Atkins, already serving as SEC chairman after April confirmation, secured reappointment to a commission seat running through 2031.
Why This Matters
The procedural change fundamentally altered how the Senate processes presidential appointments. Confirming 48 nominees individually would consume 168 hours of floor time. The batch process cut that to 62.5 hours. For 107 nominees, the time savings jumped from 378 hours to the same 62.5 hours.
Trump has now become the first president in roughly a century to have zero nominees confirmed through voice vote or unanimous consent. Democrats blocked every traditional fast-track method, forcing recorded votes that Republicans say justified the rules change.
By early October, Trump had more confirmed nominees than President Biden did at the same point, according to Washington Post tracking.
The Political Cost
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the rules change “another act of genuflection to the executive branch” designed to “rubber-stamp whomever he wants.”
Democrats argued the process bypasses necessary scrutiny. They pointed to controversies like Trump’s initial pick to lead the Office of Special Counsel, who withdrew after Politico reported text messages where he allegedly said he has “a Nazi streak” and argued against Martin Luther King Jr.
Republicans countered that Democrats created the backlog through obstruction. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Democrats “shut down the Senate floor” months before the actual government shutdown, leaving Trump’s team understaffed.
The Senate continued holding confirmation votes throughout the shutdown even as other business stalled. Continuous votes on dueling funding proposals ran through October 13, all failing on party-line margins.
Shutdown Finally Ends
Trump signed legislation reopening the government on November 12, funding operations through January 2026. The 43-day shutdown surpassed the previous record set during the 2018-2019 funding lapse.
The confirmation battle left lasting marks on Senate procedure. Future presidents from both parties will inherit the ability to confirm subcabinet positions in bulk, a power Democrats may come to regret enabling when they opposed Trump’s choices but Republicans may defend when the political tables turn.
For now, the administration has its people in place. Whether they can perform their jobs effectively after six weeks of shutdown chaos remains the question facing a federal government still reeling from the longest funding lapse in American history.
