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Trump Appointments Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 01, 2017 36 Comments
Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump's pick for Education Secretary, may have escaped her Senate committee hearing, but she just lost two Republicans on the Senate floor. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine told the Senate that neither one can vote to confirm DeVos:
"I come to the floor to announce a very difficult decision that I have made, and that is to vote against the confirmation of Betsy DeVos to be our nation's next secretary of Education," Collins said from the Senate floor. Collins specifically pointed to DeVos's "lack of familiarly" with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, saying she was "troubled and surprised."

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on February 01, 2017 9 Comments
After intense blowback and promises of confirmation obstruction for Trump's SCOTUS nominee, Neil Gorsuch, Trump suggested the Senate employ the "Nuclear Option" to move Judge Gorsuch to Justice Gorsuch. The Nuclear Option would allow the Senate to confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority as opposed to 60 votes. "Mitch, go nuclear," Trump said in a press conference Wednesday:

Posted by Mark Finkelstein on January 31, 2017 47 Comments
On MSNBC this evening, Chris Matthews cautioned Democratic Senators that if they vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, they will have to answer for it for the rest of their political career. His reasoning was a supremely political one: that at age 49, Gorsuch is likely to be on the Court for 30 years. And that any Dem voting to confirm him would have to answer, over all those years, for his decisions on controversial issues such as abortion and gun rights: "it will be on you," warned Matthews.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 31, 2017 19 Comments
It's a grand old time in the Senate today! I reported earlier that a few Senate Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee boycotted the vote to approve Rep. Tom Price as Human and Health Services (HHS) Secretary and Steven Mnuchin for Treasury Secretary. The drama did not end there. The Democrats have dragged their feet on many of President Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, but it appears Trump needs his attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, as soon as possible. He fired Sally Yates, who received the appointment of acting attorney general from President Barack Obama, after she told Justice Department lawyers not to comply with his immigration executive order. But the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee cannot stop attacking Sessions long enough to hold a vote to move his confirmation to the Senate floor.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 31, 2017 20 Comments
Crybabies. Some Senate Democrats have decided to boycott committee votes to advance Re. Tom Price (R-GA) for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary and Steven Mnuchin for Treasury secretary. From The Hill:
“I can’t understand why senators, who know we’re going to have these two people go through, can’t support the committee,” said Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 29, 2017 14 Comments
Donald Trump recently said that he would announce his Supreme Court pick on Thursday. But there are multiple reports today that the announcement may come as early as Monday. Moving up the pick would be viewed as a conversation changer after a media frenzy over the weekend regarding the visa and refugee Executive Order. The AP reports:

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 20, 2017 23 Comments
The Senate has confirmed retired General James Mattis to become the Secretary of Defense, the first confirmation of President Trump's Cabinet. He won confirmation with a 98-1. WOW. But who doesn't like or approve of Mad Dog Mattis?

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 19, 2017 5 Comments
Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin faced the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday for his confirmation hearing, answering questions about the dollar and his own investments. Mnuchin worked at Goldman Sachs for 17 years before he "became an investor at ESL Investments and then with his own fund Dune Capital Management." He rescued IndyMac Bank for $1.6 million, renaming it to OneWest. The project succeeded for Mnuchin, who sold it to CIT Group for $3.4 billion in 2015. However, the project faced scrutiny over its foreclosure practices, which Mnuchin defended during his testimony:
About foreclosures, Mnuchin said OneWest extended 100,000 loan modifications to delinquent borrowers. "In the press it has been said that I ran a 'foreclosure machine.' This is not true. On the contrary, I was committed to loan modifications intended to stop foreclosures. I ran a 'Loan Modification Machine,'" Mnuchin said. He also sought to counter the idea that a foreclosure was financially beneficial to OneWest versus a modification.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 19, 2017 36 Comments
Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Energy Department, will face the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 10AM EST. During the 2012 primary, Perry said he would abolish the Department of Energy if he became president. He also famously forgot the name of the department during one of the debates in November 2011. But that didn' bother Trump:
"As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy," Trump said in a statement. "My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process."

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 18, 2017 5 Comments
I live blogged Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt's senate hearing for the EPA, but three other cabinet choices had their own senate hearings today. That included Rep. Tom Price for Health and Human Services, Wilbur Ross for Commerce, and Nikki Haley for UN. Obamacare took control of Price's hearing, since the Republicans in D.C. want to repeal and replace it. Price told the committee that states should lead on a replacement.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 18, 2017 21 Comments
Ballotpedia is one of our favorite reference websites. It is like Wikipedia for politics, but more in-depth and reliable. Ballotpedia just released a statistical analysis of federal judicial vacancies as Trump enters office, and likely to become available during his term. That takes on great importance given that Democrats in 2013 busted the filibuster ("went nuclear") for judicial nominees below the Supreme Court level, and even as to the Supreme Court it's likely Republicans might go nuclear. So to the extent federal judicial vacancies currently exist or become available in the next four years, Trump should be unstoppable in filling those seats (unless Republicans lose the Senate in 2018, which is unlikely). We pointed out the magnitude of this late last year, Dems’ Nuclear Option will allow Trump to fill over 100 court vacancies quickly.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 18, 2017 24 Comments
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the EPA, will face the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at 10AM EST. This has potential to become one of the more feisty confirmation hearings because of his ties to everything Democrats hate: fossil fuels, skeptical of man-made climate change, and lawsuits against the EPA. Please watch live with us below and follow along as I live blog the hearing!

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 17, 2017 4 Comments
Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for education secretary, has her confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions at 5PM ET. The Democrats picked her as one of the eight nominees they want to grill the most. DeVos has remained an advocate for school choice and used money to help establish charter schools in Detroit, MI. Of course, the Democrats have concerns over her massive donations to Republicans, including some that sit on the panel, and the Republican National Committee. We'll be liveblogging beneath.
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