The Senate’s swift confirmation of two key members of President Trump’s national security team on his first day in office offers little hope that he will be able to assemble the rest of his administration team any time soon.
Gens. James Mattis, Trump’s choice for defense secretary, and John Kelly, who he tapped for Homeland Security secretary, faced little controversy in their hearings and were quickly installed Friday just hours after Trump took the oath of office before roughly 250,000 supporters gathered on the National Mall.
But other Cabinet picks could wait weeks and possibly even months before Senate confirmation while just a few who face more serious obstacles could decide to drop their bids altogether if the spotlight becomes too hot.
Cabinet nominations require a simple majority of just 51 senators to pass, so Senate Democrats can’t block Trump’s Cabinet picks unless three GOP senators cross the aisle to vote no on a nominee.
Democrats have the power to muck up the works in the Senate by slow-walking nominees, and have vowed to do so to target eight of Trump’s Cabinet picks for special scrutiny.
On his first Inauguration Day, the Senate approved seven of President Obama’s nominees, a figure Republicans had cited as their original goal for Trump. But Democrats have batted down that statistic as unrealistic considering that many of Trump’s nominees filed their required paperwork late or are wealthy businessman with extensive and complicated holdings that take more time to review.
There are a handful of non-controversial exceptions. On Monday, senators are expected to quickly approve Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., to become CIA director, and later in the week, Elaine Chao, the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former head of the Labor Department, to the transportation secretary post.
After that, the Senate process will likely come to a grinding halt followed by a slow churn of approvals, dragging out the confirmations for some nominees until March or later.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Friday he’ll agree to quickly confirm national security nominees. But Democrats plan to use floor time for “a full and vigorous debate” on the remaining nominees because they believe the GOP “made a mockery” of the vetting process during committee hearings.
Schumer called Trump’s Cabinet a “swamp Cabinet” that is “full of billionaires and bankers and full of conflicts of interest and ethical lapses.”
Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., suggested the slow-walking plan is at least partially payback for Republicans’ blocking consideration of President Obama’s Supreme Court choice Merrick Garland for 11 months last year, as well as their decision to drag out the confirmation for Attorney General Loretta Lynch for more than a year.
Nikki Haley, governor of South Carolina, is Trump’s choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She was expected to win quick Senate approval, but Democrats this week have faulted her lack of foreign policy experience for the post.
McConnell on Friday evening pressed Democrats to add Pompeo’s nomination to the Mattis and Kelly votes held. But Democrats resisted with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., citing concerns over his answers to surveillance questions during his hearing.
“It makes no sense to leave this post open — not for another week, another day, another hour,” McConnell said. “America’s enemies won’t stop planning, plotting and training just because the Democrats refused to vote.”
The Trump transition was bracing itself for a possible GOP defection on the nomination of Rex Tillerson for secretary of state. Republican Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina all expressed deep reservations about the former Exxon Mobil executive’s ability to serve as the nation’s top diplomat considering his close ties to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. But on Sunday, McCain and Graham issued a joint statement endorsing Tillerson, erasing fears his nomination was imperiled.
In addition to Tillerson, Democrats are training their sights on Health and Human Services pick Tom Price, Education Department nominee Betsy DeVos and Office of Management and Budget director nominee, Mick Mulvaney, as well as Andrew Pudzer for labor secretary, Steven Mnuchin for Treasury, Scott Pruitt for the Environmental Protection Agency, and Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary.
Schumer said Democrats want more time for an ethics investigation into stock purchases by Price, a medical doctor and GOP House lawmaker from Georgia.
Price denied making most of his stock picks directly and said a broker did it for him, but another stock purchase Price made on advice of GOP colleague, Rep. Chris Collins, R-Ga., is causing more Democratic consternation and cries of insider trading.
Democrats this week took issue with Mulvaney’s admission that he failed to pay $15,000 in payroll taxes over the course of four years for the nanny to his triplets.
Schumer pointed to the failed nomination of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to be Obama’s health and human services secretary after he admitted to failing to pay more than $128,000 taxes in the three years prior for a car service provided by a private equity fund he was paid $1 million a year to advise.
“What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander,” Schumer said.
Timothy Geithner, Obama’s choice to head the Treasury Department the same year, admitted he had not paid about $43,000 in taxes but was ultimately confirmed by the Senate.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., also won’t get a quick vote to become attorney general, even though his hearing was the first of all the nominees and he submitted his background paperwork on time.
Most Democrats disagree with Sessions’ record on civil and voting rights and have raised 30-year-old charges of racism that cost him a federal judgeship in 1986 and are planning on dragging out his inevitable approval.
