The AP has counted up the presidential nominees currently awaiting Senate confirmation. Most of those nominations are being held up by individual Republican senators. Most of those senators remain anonymous. There’s quite a logjam:
These "holds," which frequently have nothing to do with the qualifications of the nominee, have only become more prevalent as the Senate becomes more partisan. As of this week, 91 of President Barack Obama’s nominees awaiting confirmation votes were on the Senate’s calendar. Almost all of them were entangled in some sort of hold.
At the same time in George W. Bush’s first term, there were only eight nominees awaiting Senate action.
Many of Obama’s stalled nominees are in line for what appear to be noncontroversial jobs in agencies such as the Peace Corps, Amtrak and the Marine Mammal Commission. Some confirmation delays, however, are clearly disruptive.
The National Transportation Safety Board met Tuesday to discuss findings from last year’s ditching of an airliner in New York’s Hudson River. But only three of the five board members were there because the Senate hasn’t acted on two nominees, one a Democrat and one a Republican. The Democrat has been on the Senate’s docket since December.
NPR has a list of 83 nominations that are currently on hold. In limbo along with two fifths of the TSA board are Obama’s picks to fill high-level positions in the Commerce, Energy, and State Departments and the Federal Aviation Administration. In only 10 of the 83 cases has the Senator holding up the process copped to it.
UPDATE: The White House has released its own list of nearly a hundred nominees waiting for a Senate floor vote.