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President Trump has not ruled out cancelling Congresss August recess to force votes on nominees that the administration says have been held up by unpretending obstructionism by Democrats.

Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, said Senate Democrats blocking of confirmation of key nominees was jeopardizing national security and denying Americans a fully staffed federal government.

The president has every right to call Congress back if necessary, Mr. Short told reporters at the White House.

Of the total 216 nomination for civilian positions, the Senate has confirmed 23 percent, or about 49 winning approval.

By comparison, the Senate confirmed 69 percent of President Obamas 454 nominees that were submitted by the August recess in 2009. Thats about 313 nominees confirmed in the same period of time.

Mr. Short said that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, had run an unprecedented campaign of obstruction.

Democrats even walked out of committee hearings to deny quorums, like schoolchildren taking their toys from the playground, he said. But it is the American people who are being hurt.

Mr. Schumers office responded by saying the White House has only itself to blame for vacant administrative posts.

Thus far, the nomination process has been defined by the failure of the Trump administration to submit names for hundreds of vacant jobs, incomplete and delayed ethics and nominations paperwork from the nominees themselves, and repeated withdrawals of nominees for key positions, Mr. Schumers office said in a statement. If the White House is looking for someone to blame, they ought to look in a mirror.

Indeed, Mr. Trump has submitted about half as many nominations to the Senate as Mr. Obama at the same point in his presidency. But that does not explain the slow pace of votes on the names Mr. Trump sent over.

Mr. Schumer cited about 26 of Mr. Trumps nominees that he said were held up due to paperwork delays. With 49 confirmed, that leaves an unexplained backlog of about 141 nominees.

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Trump mulls cancelling Congress' summer recess to break Senate Democrat obstruction of nominees - Washington Times