Senate clears seven Obama nominees

The Senate confirmed Robert Work to be Deputy Secretary of Defense by voice-vote Wednesday.

The Senate also voted to confirm six district court judges. On Tuesday, cloture was invoked on all six nominees.

{mosads}Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has made clearing President Obama’s executive and judicial nominations a priority during the Congress. 

He even went so far as to use the “nuclear option” to change the Senate filibuster rules limiting Republicans’ ability to block nominees. Democrats now only need a simple-majority to end debate on nominations — before the rule change 60 votes were needed.

A list of the six district court nominees confirmed follows with the vote tally:

– Sheryl Lipman to be a U.S. District Judge for Western Tennessee, 95-0

– Allen Bastian to be a U.S. District Judge for Eastern Washington, 95-0

– Manish Shah to be a U.S. District Judge for Northern Illinois, 95-0

– Daniel Crabtree to be a U.S. District Judge for Kansas, 94-0

– Cynthia Bashant to be a U.S. District Judge for Southern California, 94-0

– Jon Levy to be a U.S. District Judge for Maine, 75-20

Tuesday evening, Reid filed cloture on three more judicial nominations. Votes on those nominees will be completed by Thursday afternoon.