Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved Monday to get President Trump’s nominee for labor secretary confirmed within the next few days.
The Republican leader filed for cloture Monday afternoon, according to a McConnell spokesman, which sets up a Wednesday vote to proceed on Alexander Acosta’s nomination. Republicans will need only a majority vote on that procedural move to go ahead to a full confirmation vote, though Democrats could temporarily delay the final vote. “We will see if they burn all 30 hours of post-cloture time,” McConnell spokesman David Popp told the Washington Examiner.
Acosta, a former assistant attorney general for civil rights during President George W. Bush’s administration, is one of the last Trump Cabinet nominees left unconfirmed by the Senate. The Senate is expected to confirm former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue Monday night to be Trump’s first agriculture secretary.
Trump picked Acosta in mid-February after his previous pick for the office, fast-food businessman Andy Puzder, withdrew. Democrats have been critical of the Acosta pick, though the opposition against him has not been as strong as it was against Puzder, and he has picked up support from some labor unions. Acosta’s nomination was approved by the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pension Committee last month on a party-line vote.
