The Senate has officially voted to end Chuck Schumer's (D-NY.) blockade of President Trump's nominees.

As reported by the AP, the Senate voted 51-47 to confirm 48 lower-level nominees that had been placed in limbo by obstructionist Democrats for eight months.

They are the first in a backlog of nearly 150 picks to get cleared after Senate Republicans changed the rules to allow multiple nominees to move forward with a simple majority vote. Cabinet picks and judicial nominees are not affected.

Trump backlog clears

The initial 48 picks include Trump ally Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Greece, and Callista Gingrich, who was voted in as ambassador to Switzerland. Each of the nominees received bi-partisan support from their respective committees, Majority Leader John Thune (R-Sd.) said.

"Republicans have fixed a broken process and restored the Senate precedent that applied to previous presidents — and that is allowing … a majority of a president’s nominees to be confirmed expeditiously,” Thune said on the Senate floor.

This is just the beginning. There are still over 100 nominees awaiting votes.

“There will be more to come,” Thune said. “And we’ll ensure that President Trump’s administration is filled at a pace that looks more like those of his predecessors.”

Unprecedented obstruction

Of course, this is not the first time the majority party decided to "go nuclear" and change Senate procedures.

Both parties have done it before, beginning with Democratic Senator Harry Reid in 2013, who ditched the 60-vote threshold for executive branch and lower court judicial nominees. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) later did the same for Supreme Court picks in 2017, citing Reid's precedent.

What was different this time was the scale of obstruction from the minority party. Under normal circumstances, the president gets at least some nominees confirmed quickly by voice vote or unanimous consent. But Schumer wouldn't allow that for even one nominee.

Going nuclear

Schumer has insisted that Trump's picks are so "historically" unqualified that the Senate can't operate normally.

Republicans eventually got tired of Schumer's games. Every single Republican voted to change the rules, even anti-Trump Republicans like Lisa Murkowski (R-Al.).

Now, all Schumer can do is complain. He'll just have to keep pounding sand.

“What Republicans have done is chip away at the Senate even more, to give Donald Trump more power and to rubber stamp whomever he wants, whenever he wants them, no questions asked,” Schumer said last week.