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

[AndyHogan14]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1370068923907981314?s=20
https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1370069177705373701?s=20

[AndyHogan14]

It seems like Becerra is likely going to be the least bipartisan of the Biden nominees with only one Republican vote. Although, that could change if anyone decides to change their vote when we get to cloture and/or the final vote. Haaland, which I would have guessed would have been the most contentious at the beginning of this process, received four Republican votes today. As a result, cloture was invoked on the Haaland nomination 54-42 with a final confirmation vote coming either tomorrow or early next week.

Republican Ayes (4):
Murkowski (AK)
Sullivan (AK)
Collins (ME)
Graham (SC)

Democratic Noes (0):
None

Not Voting (4):
Moran (KS)
Cassidy (LA)
Kennedy (LA)
Burr (NC)

[AndyHogan14]

March 15
5:30pm • Haaland (Senate Vote)
Possible cloture motion filed for Becerra.

March 16
10:00am • Su (Hearing; HELP)
Possible votes to invoke cloture on Becerra, Guzman, and/or Tai.

March 17
9:30am • Murthy (Committee Vote; HELP)
Likely the earliest possible date to confirm Becerra, Guzman, and/or Tai.

***

CABINET-LEVEL OFFICIALS:
Confirmed
Blinken, Yellen, Austin, Garland, Vilsack, Raimondo, Fudge, Buttigieg, Granholm, Cardona, McDonough, Mayorkas, Haines, Thomas-Greenfield, Rouse, Regan

Awaiting Full Senate Vote
Haaland (3/15), Becerra (TBA), Walsh (TBA), Guzman (TBA), Tai (TBA)

Awaiting Committee Vote
None

Awaiting Committee Hearing
None

Committee Hearings Not Yet Scheduled
Lander, New OMB Nominee

***

Today, there were no new cabinet confirmations, but today, Becerra was discharged from the Finance Committee (51-48) and cloture was invoked for Haaland (54-42) moving those two closer to final confirmation.

Once again, the Senate is taking a three-day weekend, so the final confirmation vote for Haaland will be on Monday. Also, cloture was filed today for Tai and Guzman, but no vote to invoke cloture was scheduled, so it seems likely that those roll call votes will take place on Tuesday with possible confirmation votes coming on Wednesday. Cloture has not been filed for Becerra, but I assume that Schumer will do just that at the earliest convenience to try and get him confirmed by the end of next week.

[AndyHogan14]

Today, Haaland was confirmed 51-40 with cloture being filed for Becerra and Walsh. Also, votes have been scheduled for Guzman and Tai so it is possible that all of the cabinet-level positions (except Lander and the new OMB Director) are confirmed by the end of the week.

Republican ayes for Haaland:
Murkowski (R-AK)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Collins (R-ME)
Graham (R-SC)

Not Voting for the Haaland nomination:
Bennet (D-CO)
Hickenlooper (D-CO)
Rubio (R-FL)
Hirono (D-HI)
Marshall (R-KS)
Toomey (R-PA)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Lummis (R-WY)

[AndyHogan14]

☘️ Happy St. Patrick's Day ☘️

Éirinn go Brách!

Today, Isabella Guzman was overwhelmingly confirmed (81-17) as the Administrator of the SBA and cloture was UNANIMOUSLY (!!!) invoked for Katherine Tai to be the US Trade Representative. Tomorrow, Tai will receive her (potentially unanimous) final confirmation vote at 11:00am and cloture will be invoked for Xavier Becerra. That means that Becerra will likely have his final confirmation vote on Thursday with a possible vote on cloture for Walsh coming on Thursday as well. Also, tomorrow, Murthy and Levine will be voted on in committee which could be interesting.

Republican Nays for Guzman (17-18):
Shelby (AL)**
Tuberville (AL)
Boozman (AR)
Cotton (AR)
Rubio (FL)
Scott (FL)
Crapo (ID)
Risch (ID)
Braun (IN)
Kennedy (LA)
Hawley (MO)
Daines (MT)
Sasse (NE)
Scott (SC)
Blackburn (TN)
Hagerty (TN)
Cruz (TX)
Lee (UT)
**Shelby voted no to invoke cloture, but voted aye for final confirmation.

Not Voting (Guzman & Tai):
Hirono (D-HI)
Lummis (R-WY)

[AndyHogan14]

March 18
10:00am • Monaco/Gupta (Committee Vote; Judiciary)
12:00pm • Becerra (Final Vote)
1:30pm • Walsh (Cloture Vote)

March 19-22
Possible final confirmation vote for Walsh.

March 23
9:30am • Aquilino (Hearing; Armed Services)
10:00am • Power (Hearing; Foreign Relations)

March 24
10:00am • Marten (Hearing, HELP)
10:00am • Trottenberg (Committee Vote; Commerce)

March 25
10:15am • Criswell (Hearing; Homeland Security)

***

CABINET-LEVEL OFFICIALS:
Confirmed
Blinken, Yellen, Austin, Garland, Haaland, Vilsack, Raimondo, Fudge, Buttigieg, Granholm, Cardona, McDonough, Mayorkas, Haines, Thomas-Greenfield, Rouse, Regan, Guzman, Tai

Awaiting Full Senate Vote
Becerra (3/18), Walsh (Cloture: 3/18 • Final: 3/19-22)

Awaiting Committee Vote
None

Awaiting Committee Hearing
None

Committee Hearings Not Yet Scheduled
Lander, New OMB Nominee

***

Today, we had the most overwhelming vote and the most narrow vote. Katherine Tai was unanimously confirmed to her new position as trade representative (98-0) while cloture was invoked for Xavier Becerra by the incredibly narrow margin of 50-49. To be honest, I am a little surprised that Becerra is getting as much pushback from Republicans as he has been getting. To me, he seems like a fairly "meh" and noncontroversial nominee. Oh well, he is still likely to be confirmed tomorrow (albeit by a narrow margin). Also today, the HELP committee sent the nomination of Vivek Murthy and Rachel Levine to the full Senate with a 16-6 and 13-9 vote respectively.

For Becerra, Collins was the only Republican "aye" vote and Hirono was not present to vote for either Becerra or Tai. Sanders was not present to vote for Tai but was an "aye" vote for Becerra.

In committee, Murkowski, Cassidy, Marshall, Collins, and Romney voted to advance the Murthy nomination while just Murkowski and Collins sided with the Democrats to advance the Levine nomination.

[AndyHogan14]

snip

Republicans have taken umbrage with Becerra's views on abortion. In particular, they have highlighted his case involving the Little Sisters of the Poor over contraception requirements under the ACA, and claimed that he sued nuns-a claim which he has denied.

Most of the Biden nominees have similar views on abortion (although they are not the HHS nominee) and that shouldn't be that much of a problem for Murkowski and she was still a no. Anyway, I'm still pretty surprised that Haaland got more Republican votes than Becerra is going to get tomorrow.