After leaving Washington, D.C., for the August recess last week without breaking a Democratic blockade on executive branch confirmations, Senate Republicans are now openly considering going nuclear.

According to The New York Times, the GOP is considering swift, unilateral changes to Senate rules to speed up the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s appointees this fall.

“I think there are going to be rules changes,” Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota told the outlet, calling the nominations standoff a “crisis.”

Notably, Rounds left open the possibility that his party would pursue these changes by force or through negotiations.

At the center of the debate is Democrats’ insistence on formal roll-call votes for nearly every executive branch nominee, which has stalled Trump’s efforts to f

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