Senate Republicans cleared a key hurdle Wednesday toward confirming four dozen of President Trump's lower-level nominees, teeing up a final vote after they changed the chamber's rules last week.

The Senate last week invoked the "nuclear option" to allow the chamber to confirm large numbers of nominees in a single bloc and Wednesday held a series of votes that put the first of those blocs on the precipice of confirmation. The final vote is slated for Thursday.

"Democrat obstruction ends today," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Wednesday. "Democrats failed to defeat President Trump in November at the ballot box, so instead they're trying to sabotage his team right here on the Senate floor."

All 48 of the nominees included in the tranche advanced from the committee level wi

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