High number of Trump nominations stalled in the Senate

President Donald Trump comes to the end of his first year in office with a historically high number of nominations stalled in the U.S. Senate. The Senate confirmed 300 of Trump’s nominees in 2017, more than 100 fewer than the first year totals of Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. By rule, the Senate must return about 200 appointees to the White House for renomination. That total includes Trump’s pick in July for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, who the president will have to nominate again in 2018. President Bill Clinton had only 176 returned nominations in his first two years in office combined.