Senate Democrats Monday celebrated a vote that confirmed the final member of President Biden’s Cabinet just two months after he took office.
The Senate voted to confirm Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as Biden’s secretary of labor.
Walsh’s confirmation fills all of Biden’s major Cabinet vacancies and clears the agenda this week for deputies and other lower administration positions that require a Senate vote.
On the Senate floor Monday, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer boasted that Democrats managed to usher through all 15 Cabinet positions faster than the previous two presidential administrations and managed to do it “under extraordinary circumstances and unusual responsibilities.”
Democrats only took the majority on Jan. 20, when Vice President Kamala Harris was sworn in, enabling her to become the tiebreaking vote of an evenly split Senate.
Confirmations churned through the chamber despite an agenda focused on passing a major COVID-19 spending package and a weeklong impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump.
Democrats acquitted Trump on Feb. 13 on a charge of inciting an insurrection that led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Senate passed the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid spending package on March 8.
Democrats also churned through Cabinet nominees, beginning with Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Jan. 20.
Biden withdrew Neera Tanden’s nomination to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget after she lost the support of Republicans and key Democrats due to past tweets attacking lawmakers.
“With everything else going on, this Senate has confirmed President Biden’s Cabinet faster than during both of the prior two administrations,” Schumer said.
Walsh won confirmation in a bipartisan vote.
Democrats praised Walsh’s longtime commitment to workers rights. Walsh was a member of a labor union and served as a union president in Boston before becoming mayor. He worked to raise the minimum wage in the city, and it is now $13.50 an hour.
“Workers will finally have someone on their side as at the department that is supposed to look out for them,” Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said.
Some Republicans opposed Walsh’s confirmation.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, voted against Walsh, citing the Biden administration’s policies that harm jobs, such as ending the Keystone XL pipeline.
“The Biden administration has already signaled they will ask him to implement a variety of policies that do not serve the long-term interests of American workers,” McConnell said.
