Congressional experts said that Senator John Thune’s piecemeal changes have dealt a significant blow to the minority party’s ability to force bipartisan consensus.
Senate Republicans used what is known as the nuclear option to break a Democratic blockade of President Trump’s nominees, weakening Congress’s vetting role.
Senator John Thune, the majority leader, began the process on Monday by introducing 48 of President Trump’s nominees together to allow them to be confirmed as a group.
The Republican response to the release of a suggestive note to Jeffrey Epstein apparently signed by President Trump followed a familiar pattern of deflection.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who did not emerge from his office on Monday in the hours after the drawing was released, eventually said he had not seen President Trump’s note.
Republicans said the maneuver to change the Senate’s rules, the latest step that would weaken the filibuster, was necessary to overcome Democratic obstruction of President Trump’s nominees.
If successful, Republicans’ maneuver will effectively whittle down the ability of the minority to register any opposition to executive branch nominees below the cabinet level.
Republicans and Democrats agree they will need a temporary measure to fund the government past Sept. 30, but have yet to come to terms on what it should look like.
Top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House have conceded that a stopgap bill will be needed to keep government funds flowing while they try to reach a long-term compromise.
A three-hour hearing before the Senate Finance Committee revealed that the health secretary was on uncertain ground even with some Republicans who voted to confirm him.
Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. at Thursday’s hearing, which descended into a free-for-all, in part over Mr. Kennedy’s approach to vaccination, the turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and especially his decision last week to fire Susan Monarez, the C.D.C. director.
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