Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) placed a blanket hold on President Donald Trump's nominees, paralyzing their Senate confirmations over a federal wetlands policy that restricts farmers from installing underground agricultural drainage tiles near conservation easements.
The move could delay confirmation of Dennis Kirk, author of Project 2025, as the next inspector general at the Interior Department. Nominees for Health and Human Services and the National Science Foundation also face holdups.
Cramer is furious with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to maintain the Biden-era rule instead of rolling it back. He called it a "blind defense of a Biden rule favored by environmental extremists at the expense of farmers."
"Frankly, I am stunned," Cramer said in a statement. He blamed the policy for compounding existing agricultural hardship: rising fuel and fertilizer costs and lost international markets. "My farmers are furious and so am I," he added, issuing an ultimatum: "There won't be another nominee confirmed until something changes."
Cramer also flagged the timing. The FWS decision came immediately after he agreed to vote for a wealth manager nominated as Assistant Secretary of Interior—a position overseeing these regulations. Cramer believed that nominee would reform them. The FWS move contradicted that expectation.
A Senate hold is an informal procedural tool. It allows a senator to tell party leaders he will block a nominee from advancing by unanimous consent, forcing Senate Majority Leader John Thune to allocate extensive floor time for formal voting.
The FWS has acquired hundreds of thousands of acres of easements across the Midwest since the 1970s to conserve the region's Prairie Pothole wetlands and protect waterfowl habitats. The rule at the center of the dispute was finalized in 2024 under President Joe Biden, designed to prevent farmers from interfering with protected wetlands during soil drainage operations.
The agency had initially considered reducing farming restrictions after agricultural producers argued the policy rendered significant farmland unproductive. It paused those changes, keeping the Biden rule in effect—and triggering Cramer's blockade.
