On Thursday, Republicans voted to alter Senate rules in an uncommon move designed to accelerate the confirmation process for President Donald Trump’s executive branch nominees.

This party-line vote, utilizing the so-called “” , will allow the Senate to confirm some presidential nominees in groups, rather than individually, requiring only a simple majority vote.

The maneuver comes as nearly 150 Trump Administration nominees face a backlog awaiting floor votes, and partisan gridlock has slowed confirmations throughout the summer, leading to frustration among the President and Republican lawmakers.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune initiated the process on Monday by introducing 48 of Trump’s nominees for a group vote, including individuals for cabinet departments, the CIA’s inspector general, and ambassadorships. “Democrats have completely broken the Senate confirmation process. We are more than seven months into President Trump’s current term, and the Senate has yet to confirm a single civilian nominee by unanimous consent or voice vote,” Thune asserted on Thursday.

“For two centuries, most presidential nominees have sailed through this chamber by voice vote and by unanimous consent,” Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, stated. “That was the gold standard of advice and consent. Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats abandoned it. Instead of deliberation, Senate Democrats chose unprecedented delay. That ends now.”

Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Republicans’ unilateral choice to change the chamber’s rules, claiming it will transform the confirmation process into “a conveyor belt for unqualified Trump nominees.”

“This move by Republicans was not so much about ending obstruction, as they claim. Rather, it was another act of genuflection to the executive branch,” Schumer declared Thursday on the Senate floor.

The rule change does not extend to nominees for Cabinet positions, federal judiciary, or the Supreme Court, who will still necessitate individual confirmation. It is expected to be finalized next week.

What is the nuclear option?

The “nuclear option” is a procedural tactic that enables the majority party to override the Senate’s standing rules with a simple majority vote, in contrast to the commonly required two-thirds supermajority.

It has most often been discussed as a procedural strategy to neutralize the threat of a filibuster slowing down or blocking the majority party’s agenda.

The maneuver is known as the “nuclear option” due to its extreme nature and its consequences for the minority party, whose capacity to push back against the majority it severely restricts.

Both parties have used it in recent years

Although the nuclear option has been employed infrequently, this is not the first instance of a party triggering it to expedite the confirmation process for key nominees in recent years.

In , under the Obama Administration, Senate Democrats utilized it to eliminate the filibuster on executive appointments and judicial nominations.

Republicans have since deployed the maneuver two other times. In , Senate Republicans abolished the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees in an effort to allow the GOP to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch with a simple majority vote. They invoked the nuclear option again two years later to reduce debate for most presidential nominees.

“I support the step a majority of Senators took today to change the ways of Washington by changing the way Congress does business,” President Barack Obama commented when Democrats first triggered the nuclear option in 2013. “This gridlock has not served the cause of justice. In fact it has undermined it.”