While Democrats grind the Senate to a crawl over President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, Republicans are using the delays to jump-start their campaign to kill off Obama-era regulations they’ve long despised.

The Senate on Thursday voted to strike down limits on water pollution from coal mining, a favorite target of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that can be axed without the threat of a filibuster. Senate GOP leaders hope to call up several more rifle-shot repeals of Obama regulations as they come over from the House — giving the chamber the appearance of progress even amid the confirmations standstill and with the Republicans seemingly paralyzed over what to do with Obamacare.


Republicans say they're making the most out of Democratic obstructionism.

"While they are throwing a hissy fit over nominations, we are rolling back regulations,” one Senate Republican aide said.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the No. 4 GOP leader, put it a little more politely.

“We’re very aggressively going to pursue every hour possible to make sure we can claw back these irresponsible regulations of the Obama administration,” Barrasso said. “They’ve been very hurtful for the economy, they’ve hurt hardworking families, and we’re going to do everything we can to eliminate them as they come over from the House.”

Democrats know they can do little to stop the GOP from axing regulations finalized during the later part of last year, thanks to a little-known 1996 law that allows lawmakers to pass disapproval measures with only 51 votes. But the Senate minority, responding to mass protests against Trump’s controversial immigration order, continues to see the upside of dragging out the eventual approval of Trump's Cabinet — even when they can’t win.

Democrats also believe the GOP's regulation killing spree could backfire.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) questioned whether red-state voters would approve of the next regulation Republicans plan to scrap with a simple majority vote: a requirement that fossil-fuel companies disclose payments to foreign governments. Former ExxonMobil CEO and new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson personally lobbied against that rule.

"I don’t think people in conservative states say ‘oil companies should be able to make payoffs to foreign governments and not be able to report them,’” Kaine told reporters. “They have pretty important values. Corruption is not a value of theirs. Secrecy is not a value of theirs."

Even West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a fossil-fuel ally who often breaks with fellow Democrats on energy, said he's leaning against getting rid of the Securities and Exchange Commission's transparency rule.

"I don't see a need for" unraveling the disclosure rule for fossil-fuel corporations, Manchin said in an interview. "Why shouldn't your stockholders know what you're paying?"

For a GOP forced to push Cabinet nominees past a Democratic Caucus increasingly using the same gridlock-inducing strategies that McConnell employed against Barack Obama, abolishing the former president's regulations is a welcome upside to the slow pace of confirmation.

The strategy from McConnell is long in the works . He's been able to move to deregulatory votes while waiting for time to expire before the Senate votes on Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos. House Republicans cheered the quick progress from the Senate, whose typical slow pace often frustrates the other chamber.

Trump plans to sign the measures to nullify the Obama regulations. Other rules slated to be axed include background check requirements before mentally disabled Social Security recipients can buy guns; standards for the burning of natural gas while drilling on federal lands; and a mandate that federal contractors disclose labor law violations.

So far Trump has signed two new bills into law, one that allowed retired Gen. James Mattis to become defense secretary and another on the Presidential Innovation Fellows Program. Significant new bills are unlikely to be added to that list until the Senate can make more headway on nominations.

"Nothing's moving real quickly on the floor," Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) pointed out to reporters. Carper said his party is prepared to face more regulation-killing votes under the Congressional Review Act, the 1996 law that sets up a complex 60-day clock for lawmakers to disapprove of federal rules after they are finalized.

In an ironic twist, Carper noted, former Democratic leader Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada counted the bill among one of his top legislative achievements.

"Thank you, Harry, for that gift," Carper quipped.

Republicans may lose one or two of their own on the measure to do away with the foreign payments reporting, which could be on its way to Trump's desk early Friday thanks to a 6:30 am vote the GOP scheduled to dispense with Democratic delaying tactics.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Thursday she's still undecided and Sen. John McCain of Arizona is also being targeted by transparency advocates. But even though the vote to end the rule isn't in doubt, Democrats continued to put up procedural roadblocks on Thursday to slow down the GOP's progress.

McConnell is likely to have ample opportunity to kill regulations next week while more Cabinet nominees grind their way to confirmation. The Kentucky Republican on Thursday teed up final Senate votes on Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and health secretary nominee Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.). Both Mnuchin and Price could win approval next week after DeVos is confirmed, but the threat of Democratic slowdowns could complicate their path.

As the procedural grind continued, Minority Whip Dick Durbin offered a three-word description of the main Democratic weapon in this battle: "Just stirring oratory."

Darius Dixon contributed to this report.