Las Vegas Review-Journal
(TNS)
The time it takes to confirm a presidential appointee has grown considerably over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats seek to continue that trend as they try to blunt President Donald Trump’s momentum.
So far, the Senate has confirmed eight of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet selections: Doug Burgum (Interior), Lee Zeldin (EPA), Scott Bessent ( Treasury), Pete Hegseth (Defense), Marco Rubio (State), Sean Duffy (Transportation), Kristi Noem (Homeland Security) and John Ratcliffe (CIA). Fourteen nominees remain in limbo, and Democrats in the upper chamber are now using various tactics to slow the process.
“What this is really about is trying to drag out all of these nominations, to play procedural games,” Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas said recently. “We are going to get these nominees done the easy, collegial way — or apparently the hard way.”
This has become the way of Washington — and both parties play the same games depending on who is in the majority. According to the Center for Presidential Transition, the Cabinet confirmation process for both Mr. Trump and Joe Biden was slower than for George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “The historical trends show,” Chris Piper of the center wrote last month, “that it is very difficult for any incoming president to get a Cabinet nominee confirmed within the first weeks of a new administration.”
But Democrats are under pressure from their vocal left flank to “resist” Mr. Trump. “Democrats are fuming about their party leadership’s early response to President Trump,” according to a Monday report in The Hill. “Strategists say the reaction to Trump is inconsistent and not aggressive enough.”
Democrats have a right to take whatever approach they choose, of course. “Advice and consent” doesn’t mean acquiescence. But each of these Cabinet departments has important pending issues that won’t be addressed until a secretary is in place. Unnecessary delays will only hinder the ability of Washington to serve the American taxpayers in an efficient and effective manner.
Republicans have a 53-47 Senate majority and, thanks to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hasty decision to change the rules in 2013, nominees need only a majority to prevail. That reality dampens any plans Democrats may have to scuttle the president’s nominees.
“A lot of folks aren’t that familiar with the rules,” one Democratic senator told The Hill, “and they haven’t caught up to where we are. We cannot block a single nominee unless we get” four Republicans to vote no.
Presidents, regardless of party, deserve leeway when it comes to selecting those who will serve in their administration. The last Cabinet nominee to lose a confirmation vote was John Tower in 1989. Majority Leader John Thune should continue to press the matter. Mr. Trump’s nominees deserve a timely vote.
