Senate leader files cloture on nomination of Brian Burch to serve as Vatican Ambassador

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, filed cloture Thursday evening on the nomination of Brian Burch to serve as US Ambassador to the Vatican.

Burch cofounded CatholicVote in 2008, serving as its only president until President Donald Trump nominated him for the ambassadorship. Kelsey Reinhardt was named the second president in CatholicVote’s history this June.

Thune’s decision to file cloture on Burch’s nomination comes as the Senate sits on a backlog of over 150 nominees tapped to serve in the Trump administration. The move initiates a “ripening” period of two session days, after which there will be a vote on cloture. 

It is possible that Democrats will choose to make a deal and participate in a vote on the nomination Friday, August 1, so that senators will be free to go home.

Senators may also work over the weekend and vote to invoke cloture Saturday, August 2, at which point they would start the clock on a limited period to debate over Burch’s nomination before voting on it.

While the historical norm has been to approve most such nominees by unanimous consent, Democrats in the Senate have obstructed President Donald Trump’s nominations since his reelection. 

In the absence of the routine process of unanimous consent, nominees must be voted on individually in roll call votes with required periods for debate, grinding nominations to a near-halt.

By filing cloture on this nomination, Thune has likely ensured that there will be a either a unanimous or (more likely) a roll-call vote on Burch’s ambassadorship on Friday, Saturday, or Monday.

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