Senate Confirms 74 Trump Nominees, Giving NLRB a 3-1 Republican Majority

The Senate voted 51-47 on Friday, August 7, to confirm a package of 74 of President Trump's executive branch nominees, according to Ogletree Deakins and NTD. The package, S. Res. 817, included two new members of the National Labor Relations Board, four U.S. attorneys, four U.S. marshals, and the Department of Justice's inspector general.

The Senate confirmed Republican James Macy, a Department of Labor official and former management-side labor attorney, and Democrat David Prouty, who was renominated for a second term after first being nominated by President Biden in 2021, according to Ogletree Deakins. Both will serve five-year terms running until August 2031. This gives the five-member board four seated members, with Republicans holding a 3-1 majority. Board Chairman James Murphy and member Scott Mayer, both Republicans, were confirmed in December 2025. Trump removed Democratic member Gwynne Wilcox in January 2025, a move that has been the subject of ongoing legal disputes over presidential authority to fire independent agency members.

Prouty's prior term was set to expire this month, which would have dropped the board below the three-member quorum it needs to function at all, according to Ogletree Deakins. Confirming both nominees in the same package avoided what the firm called a "quorum gap."

Long-standing NLRB practice requires at least three affirmative votes to overturn existing precedent. With only two seated Republicans and one Democrat, the board could not reverse prior rulings. With three Republicans, it now can. This allows the board to revisit Biden-era labor decisions on issues like union election procedures, joint-employer standards, and employee classification, though no specific case has been announced as a target.

One seat remains vacant on the five-member board. Ogletree Deakins reports it is not yet clear who Trump might nominate to fill it.

Outside the NLRB, the confirmed package included U.S. attorneys Kenneth Sorenson for Hawaii, Timothy VerHey for the Western District of Michigan, Sean Costello for the Southern District of Alabama, and Christopher Nassar for the Northern District of Oklahoma, according to NTD. Four U.S. marshals were also confirmed: Johnson TeeHee II, James Arnott, Jack Chambers, and Jason Holt.

The package also installed Don Berthiaume as the Justice Department's inspector general, a position responsible for investigating misconduct allegations against DOJ employees and programs. NTD did not report how long the position had been vacant before this confirmation, but described it as installing a "permanent" watchdog.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso framed the vote as clearing a backlog created by Senate Democrats. "Before Senate Democrats shut down the federal government, they shut down the Senate floor, freezing the confirmation process," Barrasso said, according to the Senate Judiciary Committee's statement cited by NTD. "For months, their blockade created a growing backlog of qualified, bipartisan nominees. Tonight, Senate Republicans confirmed 107 of those qualified nominees and ended the Democrats' confirmation blockade."

It is true that U.S. attorney and marshal confirmations have historically moved through the Senate on a bipartisan basis without delay, and NTD reports Senate Democrats held up all 93 of Trump's U.S. attorney nominations in 2025. Democrats' stated objections centered on broader disputes over the administration's use of executive power, including the Wilcox removal and other independent-agency firings, not on the individual qualifications of most nominees. Neither source here includes a direct, named Democratic rebuttal to Barrasso's characterization.

The confirmed scale is substantial. The 119th Congress has now advanced 141 of Trump's law-and-order nominees, according to NTD, including 11 circuit judges, 46 district judges, one Court of International Trade judge, 48 U.S. attorneys, and 12 U.S. marshals. Of those, 136 have been confirmed. Earlier packages moved 14 more U.S. attorneys in December 2025 and 13 U.S. attorneys plus eight marshals in May 2026.

Board Chairman Murphy's term runs until December 16, 2027, giving Republicans a multi-year window to revisit precedent before facing another confirmation fight. Ogletree Deakins notes the firm will track which decisions the board moves to overturn as cases come before it. No specific reversal has been scheduled or announced as of this writing.