Delays, pushback in Senate confirmations normal, professor says
Trump has been meeting with business leaders and signing executive actions while some of his nominees were back in front of the Senate for confirmation hearings, including Congressman Tom Price up for Health and Human Services and South Carolina representative Mick Mulvaney who has been nominated as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Votes were originally scheduled Tuesday on the nominees for Attorney General, Energy Secretary and Interior Secretary. They were postponed.
Dr. Sam Hoff, a professor of Political Science and History at Delaware State University, explains these sort of delays in the process are normal.
"A little slow, but it's ok average for the number of people sitting in their position on the first day of the Trump administration," explains Dr. Hoff.
The Senate confirmed President Trump's first two Cabinet members last Friday, with Mike Pompeo confirmed Monday night as CIA director.
Former Exxon-Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson won the backing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Monday to be secretary of state.
"The Secretary of State position with Rex Tillerson, the time it took for that…I think it was one of the most challenging issues coming up in the Trump White House," Dr. Hoff explains. "They dealt with that successfully even with the delay in the original appointment."
Tillerson's nomination now heads to the full Senate, but it did not come without pushback from the very committee it was confirmed by.
U.S. Senator for Maryland Ben Cardin, a ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, cited Tillerson's potential conflicts of interest as a reason why the former big oil CEO did not get his vote.
"During the confirmation hearings he raised me many questions as to whether his business interests would compromise his ability to speak out for US leadership on human rights and good governance, in particularly as it relates to Russia," explains Senator Cardin.
This sort of "political in-fighting" as Dr. Hoff calls it is nothing new.
With votes on appointments needing absolute majority and Republicans comprising a safe majority of both chambers, Dr. Hoff says he does expect every cabinet nominee on the department level to eventually be approved.
"It's going to be hard to envision any of the nominees going down based on disagreements," he says.
Dr. Hoff points out another controversial pick is Betsy DeVos for secretary of education. A request for a second hearing on DeVos was rejected Tuesday mid-afternoon.
The Senate committee is scheduled to vote on her nomination next Tuesday.
There is no definite timeline on when every nominee must be confirmed by.
