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

[Meatball Ron]

Is there a way to differentiate between No votes and Abstentions (with another color) on these maps? It's a bit misleading in its current format.

[Meatball Ron]

Barring some big revelation, the Dems should muscle through Haaland and Tanden if any serious opposition is put up.

They will.

This.  Also, Haaland and (to a somewhat lesser degree) Becerra were always going to be the most contentious picks.  Tanden might not have been confirmed by a Republican Senate, but I don’t think Republicans are as invested in opposing her.  They absolutely despise Haaland though, that’s for sure.

Err, what's the logic here? I got the sense that Tanden, Becerra, and maybe Mayorkas were going to have the toughest time in a GOP Senate. McConnell alluded to as much in an article. I don't think Tanden will get a single GOP vote. What do you think is their issue with Haaland? Haven't really read anything about that; the delay with her is about preserving House majority, not anything around the number of votes.

[Meatball Ron]

Is there a way to differentiate between No votes and Abstentions (with another color) on these maps? It's a bit misleading in its current format.

I'm afraid I can't find a work-around with the Atlas map format - I'll look into other visual tools after the current batch is done. Something like the 538 tool for Senate seats would be great.

I appreciate it's misleading, but the two-seat situation makes it weirdly hard to distinguish them. Sorry

Totally makes sense - thanks so much for making these!

[Meatball Ron]

UPDATED SCHEDULE:
February 22
9:30am • Garland (Hearing; Judiciary • Day 1)
5:30pm • Thomas-Greenfield (Cloture)

February 23
9:30am • Garland (Hearing; Judiciary • Day 2)
9:30am • Haaland (Hearing; Energy)
10:00am • Becerra (Hearing; HELP)
TBA • Vilsack (Senate Vote)

February 24
2:30pm • Guzman (Committee Vote; SBE)
TBA • Tanden (Committee Vote; Budget)

March 1
TBA • Garland (Committee Vote; Judiciary)

***

Confirmed
Blinken, Yellen, Austin, Buttigieg, McDonough, Mayorkas, Haines

Awaiting Full Senate Vote
Vilsack (2/23), Raimondo (TBA), Fudge (TBA), Granholm (TBA), Walsh (TBA), Cardona (TBA), Thomas-Greenfield (Cloture 2/22), Rouse (TBA), Regan (TBA)

Awaiting Committee Vote
Guzman (2/24), Garland (3/1), Tanden (2/24; Budget), Tanden (TBA; HSGAC)

Awaiting Committee Hearing
Garland (2/22-23), Haaland (2/23), Becerra (2/23)

Committee Hearings Not Yet Scheduled
Tai, Lander

***

Haaland's hearings have been added to the schedule and next Tuesday is shaping up to be a busy day with three important hearings and a full Senate vote on Vilsack. Tanden's Budget committee vote has been scheduled for next Wednesday. Also, while not a major cabinet official, Adewale Adeyemo's committee hearing has been scheduled for next Tuesday at 10am.

What do you peg as the odds that Raimondo is confirmed next week?

[Meatball Ron]

UPDATED SCHEDULE:
February 22
9:30am • Garland (Hearing; Judiciary • Day 1)
5:30pm • Thomas-Greenfield (Cloture)

February 23
9:30am • Garland (Hearing; Judiciary • Day 2)
9:30am • Haaland (Hearing; Energy)
10:00am • Becerra (Hearing; HELP)
TBA • Vilsack (Senate Vote)

February 24
2:30pm • Guzman (Committee Vote; SBE)
TBA • Tanden (Committee Vote; Budget)

March 1
TBA • Garland (Committee Vote; Judiciary)

***

Confirmed
Blinken, Yellen, Austin, Buttigieg, McDonough, Mayorkas, Haines

Awaiting Full Senate Vote
Vilsack (2/23), Raimondo (TBA), Fudge (TBA), Granholm (TBA), Walsh (TBA), Cardona (TBA), Thomas-Greenfield (Cloture 2/22), Rouse (TBA), Regan (TBA)

Awaiting Committee Vote
Guzman (2/24), Garland (3/1), Tanden (2/24; Budget), Tanden (TBA; HSGAC)

Awaiting Committee Hearing
Garland (2/22-23), Haaland (2/23), Becerra (2/23)

Committee Hearings Not Yet Scheduled
Tai, Lander

***

Haaland's hearings have been added to the schedule and next Tuesday is shaping up to be a busy day with three important hearings and a full Senate vote on Vilsack. Tanden's Budget committee vote has been scheduled for next Wednesday. Also, while not a major cabinet official, Adewale Adeyemo's committee hearing has been scheduled for next Tuesday at 10am.

What do you peg as the odds that Raimondo is confirmed next week?

Raimondo will be confirmed pretty easily.

Sorry, to clarify, I didn't mean whether she is confirmed *at all* but specifically whether the vote happens *next week*

[Meatball Ron]

snip

What do you peg as the odds that Raimondo is confirmed next week?

Pretty good being that she has already cleared committee, but you never know. I haven't heard any rumors of a filibuster of her but that could still be taken care of by next Friday if Schumer wanted to invoke cloture early in the week.

True, but 9 nominees have cleared committee, and given how slowly they've been moving, I doubt all would get a vote next week. So I'm curious how high Raimondo is in the order of priority / importance. Seems that, at a minimum, Cardona and LTG will get a full Senate vote first (and Vilsack of course).

[Meatball Ron]

Manchin and Collins both announced their support for Becerra this morning, all but assuring his confirmation.

Any idea what's going on with Walsh? Surprised he's the only one (besides Lander and OMB) without a full Senate vote scheduled. He got ~2/3rds of the GOP votes in committee so it's not like his confirmation will be particularly narrow.

[Meatball Ron]

Manchin and Collins both announced their support for Becerra this morning, all but assuring his confirmation.

Any idea what's going on with Walsh? Surprised he's the only one (besides Lander and OMB) without a full Senate vote scheduled. He got ~2/3rds of the GOP votes in committee so it's not like his confirmation will be particularly narrow.

Walsh has some well-known personal demons (he's in recovery and, in fact, people in recovery are his political base in Boston) that shouldn't ultimately derail his confirmation but that I guess could conceivably be causing scheduling issues.

Yeah, I don't see why that would impact confirmation timing considering it didn't get in the way of him being both selected and sailing through committee

[Meatball Ron]

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.

I'm also interested to see who gets important ambassadorships.

I'm incredibly eager to see who Biden selects for Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (doubles as NOAA Administrator). Very important position that oversees the National Weather Service and other key agencies within Commerce. The position was held by Acting officials for the entire Trump presidency; the last Senate-confirmed person in this role was Kathryn Sullivan for the second half of Obama's presidency.