Inside the Senate’s nomination slowdown

 

 

Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who huddled on the Senate floor last Tuesday with Sens. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), was working to gain support to force a vote to confirm Gen. Eric Smith to be commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Smith is one of the 301 military positions that Tuberville has blocked over the Defense Department’s abortion policy. Tuberville has met with Smith and supports his confirmation, according to an aide to Tuberville.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged Sullivan not to move ahead, according to three people familiar with the interaction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to divulge private conversations.

The maneuver Sullivan proposed — known as a cloture petition — would set a precedent that would be abused by Democrats when they are in the minority, McConnell warned, adding that it’s possible that Republicans could take back the Senate in next year’s midterm elections. (Right now cloture petitions are used rarely by the minority party and almost never by rank-and-file members such as Sullivan.)Growing tensions over nominations
Sullivan’s effort came as tension mounts over the hundreds of nominees throughout government waiting to be confirmed.

It’s not just Tuberville who is blocking swift confirmation of nominees.

At least a half-dozen senators are preventing nominees for posts across the administration — including but not limited to the Justice Department, State Department, Commerce Department, Defense Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency — from being confirmed.

Senators are holding up the process for various reasons. Sometimes they have to do with the nominee, but more often they don’t.

“Hopefully it forces people to come to the table and be responsive,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who is holding up all Energy Department nominees until he gets an action plan from the Biden administration on cleaning up radioactive waste in St. Louis.read more