Democratic senators will hold the Senate floor all night long in opposition to the nomination of Russ Vought...

[Wiz Imp]

35. Holds on individual cabinet nominees don't do much.

Can you name any Biden Cabinet nominees who were delayed significantly due to a hold placed by Republicans?

Tuberville's hold stopped nominations from moving forward because there were over 400 packaged together. To get past that hold would have required going through them one by one and allowing debate on each one which would have taken months of time which would have prevented them from doing more important things.

See the procedure for getting around a hold here (on an individual nominee it's not that complicated to get around it):

Note: I'll keep posting this until enough people see it and it sinks in that a hold on a cabinet nominee is not the magic pill many seem to think it is.

From the CRS (https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12200) :

In response to a hold, the Senate could choose to pursue consideration of a single nomination without
unanimous consent. The Senate can approve nominations using the cloture process in Senate Rule XXII.
The cloture process was designed to bring the Senate to a vote on a matter, even in the face of determined
opposition to having a vote. In recent years, the Senate has interpreted the cloture rule to require majority
support to end debate on a nomination, and also to establish that two hours is the maximum time for
debate on most nominations after cloture is agreed to.

Absent unanimous consent, the steps to confirm a nomination include:

• The Senate approves a non-debatable motion to proceed to executive session to take up a
nomination on the Executive Calendar. (Normally this motion is approved immediately
without a roll call vote—but with sufficient support, a Senator could secure a roll call
vote on this question. The motion requires a simple majority to pass.)
• The majority leader (or his designee) files cloture on the nomination. (The cloture motion
asks if the Senate wishes to bring debate to a close on the nomination.) Absent unanimous
consent to alter this “ripening period,” the Senate must wait two session days before
voting on cloture. The Senate can conduct other business during these two days, and
usually does.
• Two days of session later, the Senate votes on cloture. The vote is required to be a roll
call vote under the rule. If a majority of Senators voting support cloture, then cloture is
said to be invoked, and further consideration of the nomination is limited.
• The Senate conducts post-cloture debate on the nomination. For all but the highestranking nominations, the maximum time for consideration of a nomination after cloture is
invoked is two hours. Once cloture is invoked on a matter, the Senate can consider other
business during the post-cloture period only by unanimous consent.
• After post-cloture debate time expires, or when no Senator seeks to discuss the
nomination further, the Senate votes on the nomination. This can be by voice vote, but
with sufficient support a Senator could secure a roll call vote on the question of
confirming the nomination. The motion requires a simple majority to pass.
• To make the confirmation vote final, and in order to immediately return the approved
nomination to the President, the Senate routinely takes another parliamentary step by
unanimous consent. To prevent the possibility of a re-vote on the nomination, the Senate
tables (meaning, adversely disposes of) a motion to reconsider (a motion that would
allow a re-vote). (Absent unanimous consent, the Senate could vote to table the motion to
reconsider.)

The Senate often confirms nominations without unanimous consent by using the cloture process just
described. Confirming a large number of nominations using the cloture process could take considerable
floor time. The process can be somewhat expedited by filing cloture on multiple nominations on the same
day (sometimes referred to as stacking cloture motions). Cloture motions filed sequentially on multiple
nominations ripen simultaneously after the next two days of Senate session. Each nomination must still be
considered separately, however, which would usually mean two roll call votes (one on cloture and one on
confirmation, each approximately 15 minutes) and then up to two hours of debate time on each
nomination.