Biden Cabinet Confirmation Live Thread ***hearings, votes, etc.***

[LtNOWIS]

The House is currently voting on the Austin waiver...so far, it looks like it will easily pass.

I'm on record as opposing it, but I'm sympathetic to the arguments they made on the floor. That we just need to get any qualified nominee in there, as soon as possible.

[LtNOWIS]

Will be interesting to see the final vote on the waiver. Likely a mix of the most partisan Republicans and extremely by the book pro overregulation Dems.

List isn't out on the House site yet, but you can see it here: https://twitter.com/JordanUhl/status/1352372114121240578

The 15 Dems don't just love rigidly adhering to regulations for their own sake. It's an ideological vote. There's a couple centrist veterans and a lot of left wingers, who are concerned about maintaining civilian control of the military.

[LtNOWIS]

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1359300611049738247

That's way too far away. What is Dick Durbin doing?

From a "judicial wars" perspective, Garland is the most important person. The DoJ will be fine with a career official in charge for a bit, (currently Deputy Assistant AG for Human Resources Monty Wilkinson). But in terms of shaping the SCOTUS, Garland becoming AG opens up another Circuit Court vacancy, on the critically important DC Circuit. In addition to being important in their own rights, the Circuit Courts are a key place to cultivate SCOTUS picks. And of course, a SCOTUS justice could die at any moment, so it really matters that Biden can fill the Garland vacancy and the other 4 circuit court vacancies as quickly as possible.

So yeah, I don't know why Senate Dems are taking so long. They just seem way worse at handling judges than Mitch McConnell.

[LtNOWIS]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1365028670151274496?s=20
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1365029970381336578?s=20
They won't be doing anything tomorrow. Must be nice to have so many three-day weekends. 🙄

WTF, why are they wasting a whole day?

Politicians are generally an overpaid, lazy folk.

Running for Congress would be grueling. I don't mind spending 4 hours on the phone for my job on occasion but to do that day in and day out begging for money, while also campaigning for office every other year, while also having to represent the party, do votes, do committee work, and run a staff, would be way harder than I would ever want to work.

Also the pay is not that high compared to the amount of responsibility they have. Most of them could make more if they quit and became lobbyists. That's why they call it "cashing out." Between the comparatively low pay, the need for campaign cash, and the idea that you could run and lose and have nothing to show for a year of your time on the trail, it's no surprise that there are so many already wealthy people who run for office.

[LtNOWIS]

Which Cabinet nominees are left to be confirmed?
-Interior, Labor, HHS
-Trade Rep, SBA, Science Director
-still need to nominate someone new for OMB

Anyone else?

That's it for the Cabinet and Cabinet-level posts, yes.

Still plenty of non-cabinet people of varying levels of importance, of course.

[LtNOWIS]

Which Cabinet nominees are left to be confirmed?
-Interior, Labor, HHS
-Trade Rep, SBA, Science Director
-still need to nominate someone new for OMB

Anyone else?

That's it for the Cabinet and Cabinet-level posts, yes.

Still plenty of non-cabinet people of varying levels of importance, of course.

Jumping off of this, Shalanda Young will technically immediately take the reins at OMB as Acting Director upon her impending confirmation as Deputy Director, which bodes well for her potential selection to replace Tanden as the nominee for the permanent Director's job.

Yeah. Bumping her up from Acting and Deputy into fully having the job would be easy enough, if they go that route.

There's a lot of other big positions I'm interested in. The military secretaries, CIA Director and FEMA director all used to be cabinet level and are quite important; various other DoD and DHS undersecretaries and agency directors, who oversee vast amounts of money and personnel; the OPM director; the vacant seat on the Federal Trade Commission; various others I'm forgetting.

[LtNOWIS]

https://twitter.com/connorobrienNH/status/1397723687336484865

I remember when Trump couldn't fill this position until November 2017. It got real old seeing acting guys on the command wall. And it was the same way across the federal government, vacancies across the board.

Biden's getting the right people in the slots. Qualified professionals who are going to make positive change.

[LtNOWIS]

Soldier’s missing pay triggered Army secretary double confirmation snafu

As I suspected. Senator Cramer (R-ND) was unhappy that one of his constituents, deployed overseas to Africa, was not being paid properly.

[LtNOWIS]

Starting to wonder whether the Cabinet will be fully confirmed by November 2024.
Where. Are. The. Judges.

(either way, thanks for the rundown, Dwarven)

Only the top secretaries count as Cabinet. Most administrations are confirming lower officials throughout their terms because there are so many positions.

Yeah even with a cooperative Senate, I don't think you could ever get judicial vacancies down to zero.

And by cooperative Senate, I mean one where they didn't play the games of the past 20 years or so, where a Senator doesn't like the president and keeps a seat open for the entire term. There have been judicial vacancies in Florida for Biden's entire term of office.