News release: “[June 29, 2011] U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced the Senate’s passage of bipartisan legislation to clear the backlog of stalled executive nominations by permanently exempting a range of positions from Senate confirmation. The legislation, which passed 79 to 20, will reduce gridlock and increase the productivity of the Senate. The legislation now moves to the House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Once enacted into law, the bill would eliminate the need for the Senate to vote on roughly 170 executive nominations and 3,000 noncontroversial Officer Corps positions. In all, the bill, combined with a separate Senate resolution that was also expected to pass today, reduces or streamlines the number of positions requiring full Senate confirmation by one-third…A list of positions exempted from Senate confirmation—sorted by the Senate committee of jurisdiction—appears in this release.”