Half of cloture votes on presidential nominees were for judges, justices Nominations subject to U.S. Senate cloture votes since 1991, by position Ca binet secretaries 16 Source: Senate records, Pew Research Center research
Even though the Senate first allowed cloture to be sought on nominations in 1949, it wasn’t until the 1968 nomination of Abe Fortas to be chief justice of the Supreme Court that it was actually attempted. The cloture vote failed, and Fortas was not confirmed. Over the next two decades, cloture was sought only 10 times on nominations and was actually invoked eight times, primarily for judicial positions, according to a Congressional Research Service report. But since 1992, according to Pew Research Center tabulations of Senate data, 232 individual nominees have been subject to at least one cloture vote.
Half of cloture votes on presidential  | nominees were for judges, justices  | Nominations subject to U.S. Senate cloture votes  | since 1991, by position  | District Supreme and circuit judges,  | 117  | Supreme Court justices judges,  | Sub Cabinet officials  | 49  | Regulators, agencies heads of  | 30  | independent Regulators, agencies  | Ca binet secretaries 16  | Ambassadors  | Federal Reserve  | Board members  | White House staff  | Note: Counts as of May 31 2017  | Source: Senate records, Pew Research Center research  | PEW RESEARCH CENTER 