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

[Sestak]

This morning, C-SPAN said that Yellen and Blinken could be voted on today, but McConnell in his morning remarks said that Blinken would be voted on next week. Any news on Yellen and/or Blinken?

Yellen was voted (unanimously) out of committee earlier today, so there are no obstacles to confirming her today.

It's been reported that there are a few holds against Blinken's nomination in committee at the moment, which would prevent them from using unanimous consent to discharge from the committee and vote immediately. If the holds aren't lifted, they'll have to wait for the Foreign Affairs committee to vote at their next regular meeting (which is on Monday).

Risch (chair of committee) said he was "working on" getting the holds lifted, but Menendez (lead Dem) said he expected it would only happen on Monday.

[Sestak]

Toomey, Portman, Murkowski! all nays on Becerra cloture. Collins an aye (and all Dems so far, inc. Manchin)

[Sestak]

blago for senate

[Sestak]

Why this change? Is it a custom to replace all the ambassadors named under the predecessor?

Not quite. There are ambassadors who are “political” that work that way; these are generally close allies or donors to the incumbent President. However, this is usually restricted to countries with which we have reliably good relations, so the actual Ambassador doesn’t have to deal with too much beyond formalities.

However, most ambassadors (especially ones on sensitive missions such as Russia) are career foreign service officials. These ambassadors are usually appointed for an implied term of three years. The previous ambassador was nominated in 2019 and stepped down earlier this year.

[Sestak]

Still awaiting our first 51-50 confirmation since Jan 2021, aren't we? I read that GOP hardliners were quite upset at Lindsey about his compliance.

First judicial confirmation, yes. There have been plenty of executive confirmations at 51-50 (such as Chopra to lead the CFPB).

One judge (Jennifer Sung, CA9) had a tiebreak on a procedural discharge vote at 49-49 with one senator in each party absent, but was confirmed 50-49 (as only a Republican was absent). So we've been close but not quite there.

[Sestak]

Still awaiting our first 51-50 confirmation since Jan 2021, aren't we? I read that GOP hardliners were quite upset at Lindsey about his compliance.

Still awaiting our first 51-50 confirmation since Jan 2021, aren't we? I read that GOP hardliners were quite upset at Lindsey about his compliance.

First judicial confirmation, yes. There have been plenty of executive confirmations at 51-50 (such as Chopra to lead the CFPB).

One judge (Jennifer Sung, CA9) had a tiebreak on a procedural discharge vote at 49-49 with one senator in each party absent, but was confirmed 50-49 (as only a Republican was absent). So we've been close but not quite there.

We got one today (Araceli Martinez-Olguin, Northern District of California). Harris broke the 48-48 tie to confirm the nomination.

Yep. Makes here the first US District Judge in history (second federal judge, after Kobes in 2018) confirmed by tiebreak.