Trump urges Senate to clear 161-nominee backlog before Congress changes hands

President Donald Trump urged the Republican-led Senate Nov. 9 to confirm all 161 pending nominees he has submitted before Democrats take control of the chamber in January.

“Very important for the U.S. Senate to confirm all of our pending 161 Nominations, including 25 Federal Judges,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Democrats won control of both chambers in the Nov. 3 midterms. The current tally of seats they secured in the Senate is 54, surpassing the 51 needed for a majority, and votes are still being counted in the Alaska and Mississippi Senate races. The new Congress will convene Jan. 3, leaving Republicans roughly eight weeks to conduct business while still in the majority.

There are some differences between sources in the number of judges needing confirmation. Trump gave 25 as the number, but Mike Davis, founder of the conservative Article III Project, wrote in a Nov. 7 Fox News column that 23 pending judicial nominees need confirmation, four for appeals courts and 19 for district courts. However, the U.S. Courts website showed that as of Nov. 3, the federal judiciary had 28 vacancies and 11 pending nominees. 

Senate Republicans changed their rules in September 2025 to allow most executive nominees to be confirmed in bundles by simple majority, according to the Congressional Research Service. The change excludes Article III judges and certain senior executive posts, so each of the judges would need individual floor action unless senators agree otherwise by unanimous consent. The first bundle of 48 nominees cleared Sept. 18, 2025.

The Partnership for Public Service found in 2023 that nomination-related votes made up 54% of recorded Senate votes in Trump’s first two years and 58% in President Joe Biden’s, compared with no more than 14% under earlier administrations back to George H.W. Bush. “The rise in cloture and nomination votes symbolizes the breakdown in the confirmation process,” the group said. Those figures predate the 2025 rules change.

If a Supreme Court vacancy occurs during the next two months, it would complicate the calendar. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., contemplating that possibility, told the Associated Press, “We’re not going to allow a right-winger on the court.” 

Speculation has been circulating in D.C. that Justice Samuel Alito, 76, or Justice Clarence Thomas, 78, might consider retiring during the lame duck Congress window to allow President Trump to name a successor. 

Both justices appear unlikely to announce their retirement, though. 

But Alito said in a September interview with Bloomberg News that he plans to continue through the current Supreme Court term and will not announce his retirement during a lame duck session. And Thomas hasn’t spoken about his retirement since 2019, when he quipped that he isn’t retiring and doesn’t plan to for 20 or 30 years.