"I expect we will move a bill through the committee sometime before the end of March," Sen. Roy Blunt said. | AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File Congress GOP chairman plans rule change to aid Trump nominees

Senate Republicans are intent on making it easier to confirm President Donald Trump's nominees. And they're going to make a move with or without Senate Democrats.

The GOP is planning to cut debate time on some lower-level nominees and accelerate confirmation of Trump's judicial and executive branch picks, and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt said his committee will likely take up the measure sometime before the end of March. The Missouri Republican hopes to work with Democrats on a bipartisan change, but Republicans are also prepared to use the "nuclear option" and act unilaterally if they can't get buy-in from Democrats.


"We're going to deal with this issue, I think. We're going to try it [bipartisan] and I think our Republican members would want to see an effort ... and we would want that to be a genuine effort. So, let's see," Blunt said in an interview on Monday. "It's clear that if we don't change this, some Democrat president in the future is going to deal with exactly what President Trump and the Republican Senate has had to deal with."

Blunt's timeline is less aggressive than one laid out by Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), who last week suggested the rules change could be immediate. It will also take a few more days for the Senate's committees to have nominees ready for the Senate floor.

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The change would likely shave debate time for sub-Cabinet and District Court nominees, though no decision has been made. Under current rules, any senator can demand as much as 30 hours of debate time for each nominee. And because Congress is now split between a Democratic House and GOP Senate, Senate Republicans are signaling they will expend much of their energy on nominations given the ideological clash on legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's top priority is installation of lifetime judgeships, and a change to the rules could have a dramatic effect on how quickly 121 District Court vacancies can be filled. Last year, Republicans ran out of time to confirm more judges in the lame duck. A rules change now could help make up ground.

Senators in both parties agreed to temporarily cut debate time on nominees during two years of Barack Obama's presidency. A permanent reduction would aid Trump but could help Democrats if they win the presidency and Senate in 2020.

However, a bipartisan deal could be difficult considering the pressure Democrats face to fight Trump as hard as they can. Republicans can invoke a unilateral rules change with a simple majority vote, also known as using the "nuclear option," if they can't get Democratic support.

"I expect we will move a bill through the committee sometime before the end of March," Blunt said. "Whether that's two weeks from now or mid-March, I don't know. But I think this is something we will deal with one way or another."

