(CNN) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cut a deal with Democratic leaders in the upper chamber to clear a slate of President Donald Trump's nominees, one of the top August priorities for the Kentucky Republican.

The deal, which permitted 11 nominees to be cleared immediately and another eight to be voted on next week, also will allow senators who missed most of their August recess to go home for a couple of days before many come back at the end of the week to say farewell to their colleague Sen. John McCain, who died last Saturday.

McConnell had canceled the August recess after being pushed by restive conservatives in his caucus to stay in session to approve Trump's picks and make progress on oft-delayed spending bills.

Many senators hoped the threat would be short-lived but after liberal Democrats bottled up the nominees and refused to relent, McConnell was forced to take time-consuming procedural steps to overcome the filibusters.

There is little the minority Democrats can do on their own to stop the nominees, because only a simple majority is needed for them to be confirmed. But Democrats were able to delay OK'ing some of the nominees at least until next week.

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