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

[Calthrina950]

It's astounding to me how long the confirmation process has been dragging on. Biden has been in office for over a month now, and a significant portion of his Cabinet (Haaland, Fudge, Garland) have yet to be confirmed. Hopefully things will wrap up within the next few weeks, both on the nominations and with regards to the stimulus bill.

[Calthrina950]

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 15-7 to send the nomination of Merrick Garland to be the next attorney general to the full Senate. Republican Senators Cotton, Kennedy, Lee, Blackburn, Hawley, Sasse and Cruz voted “No.”

Simply inexplicable on republicans' part how they can vote no on Garland, who is possibly the least controversial and most qualified of all of Biden's nominees, and arguably the most qualified AG nominee ever. These clowns voted yes on Barr. Just remember this the next time anyone suggests we should deal with the likes of Cotton, Hawley, Cruz, Blackburn, etc in good faith.

Hawley has voted against every single Biden nominee, while Lee and Cruz have only voted for one each, to my knowledge. So it's not surprising to see them continuing this pattern of behavior. Nominations in all fields have become much more partisan than they used to be. Not one of Biden's nominees has received a unanimous confirmation thus far.

[Calthrina950]

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes 15-7 to send the nomination of Merrick Garland to be the next attorney general to the full Senate. Republican Senators Cotton, Kennedy, Lee, Blackburn, Hawley, Sasse and Cruz voted “No.”

Simply inexplicable on republicans' part how they can vote no on Garland, who is possibly the least controversial and most qualified of all of Biden's nominees, and arguably the most qualified AG nominee ever. These clowns voted yes on Barr. Just remember this the next time anyone suggests we should deal with the likes of Cotton, Hawley, Cruz, Blackburn, etc in good faith.

Hawley has voted against every single Biden nominee, while Lee and Cruz have only voted for one each, to my knowledge. So it's not surprising to see them continuing this pattern of behavior. Nominations in all fields have become much more partisan than they used to be. Not one of Biden's nominees has received a unanimous confirmation thus far.

Lee actually voted in favor of Vilsack, Buttigieg, McDonough and Thomas-Greenfield. On the Republican side only Josh Hawley opposed all nominees, Cruz voted only for Austin and Rick Scott only voted for Haines and Austin. Other senators voted in favor for at least 3 nominees

I see. I haven't been following the details of all the nominations, and it's difficult to keep track of them, given how many there are. So I'm glad to see that the picture isn't as dark as I believed, although it still isn't the most optimistic one, and Hawley's blind opposition to all Biden nominees is clearly a deliberate move on his part, in pursuit of his vain presidential ambitions.

[Calthrina950]

Murkowski, Sullivan, Collins, and Graham were the Republican yeas for Haaland. Who were the nine Senators who didn't vote?

Graham? How intriguing?

Yeah, I was kind of surprised, too, but he also voted for cloture on Haaland on Thursday. According to the Huffington Post, he received a letter from Chief William Harris of the Catawba Indian Nation, who supported Haaland's nomination, that strongly affected his decision to vote Aye for Haaland:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-deb-haaland-interior-secretary_n_604a60ecc5b636ed3378feaf

Graham actually seems to have voted for most of Biden's nominees. That's one area where he's retained some semblance of his pre-Trump self. As he himself noted during the Kavanaugh hearings, he voted for both Sotomayor and Kagan back in 2009-2010.

[Calthrina950]

Hawley is going to be the Gillibrand of 2024 at this rate, voting against almost all of Biden's Cabinet picks.

I'm surprised he voted for any, iirc Gillibrand voted against all of Trump's nominees.

She voted for Shulkin.

And like Tai, Shulkin was the only one of Trump's cabinet nominees who received a unanimous confirmation.

[Calthrina950]

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: 3/19 • 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.

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.

[Calthrina950]

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.

You're right, but it has been one of the main issues they've used against him. They also object to his views and cases on issues such as gun control and climate change, to say nothing of his long-track record in Congress, and are making hay out of a meeting he had with Fidel Castro back in the late 1990s.

[Calthrina950]

Becerca got confirmed 50-49.

*Becerra

I butchered his name myself, and had to correct a previous post twice. But at any rate, his is the narrowest confirmation for any of Biden's nominees thus far, with Collins being the only Republican to vote for him.

[Calthrina950]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

[Calthrina950]

Levine passes CLOTURE 52-48

R Ayes: Collins, Murkowski

Turk passes CLOTURE 98-2:

NAYs ---2
Hawley (R-MO)
Paul (R-KY)

Why do you list Manchin as a Republican?

Because I do not consider him to be a Democrat these days.

This doesn't make any sense. Manchin voted for the American Rescue Plan, while every single Republican-including Collins and Murkowski-voted against it. And he is still a member of the Democratic caucus; without him, the Democrats would not have the majority.

[Calthrina950]

Gupta confirmed by the same 51-49 vote.

My queen is alive.

Why was her nomination so controversial?

[Calthrina950]

Alikhan (DC Court of Appeals) passes CLOTURE 55-40

Disgusting. (*Also, it's AliKhan, not Alikhan.)

There seems to be a consistent core of ~30-40 Republican Senators who have voted against virtually every Biden nominee, regardless of how lowly or how insignificant the position is.