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

[brucejoel99]

Sasse went after Beccera hard in his questioning the other day. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCCOAwR8d8g

I am wondering if these issues will be a problem for Manchin's support.

Seems pretty unlikely

And not for nothing, but during one of his hearings, Tuberville made a reference to "when" he's confirmed - not "if" - & Murkowski asked him to visit AK early in his tenure, as if the potential for his nomination to fail wasn't even a possibility.

If the Senate already admits that he's going to get confirmed, then he obviously has the numbers to get confirmed.

[brucejoel99]

I imagine that Dan McKee's probably popping some champagne right about now.

[brucejoel99]

Wonder if Biden will choose Gene Sperling for OMB.

Presumably either him or Shalanda Young.

[brucejoel99]

Say it with me, folks: Secretary Haaland.

https://twitter.com/burgessev/status/1367495606982348801

[brucejoel99]

Has Biden nominated any ambassadors already? Ambassadorships to key allies like Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan or Israel should be filled asap.

Beyond Linda Thomas-Greenfield & Katherine Tai, no.

[brucejoel99]

A sentence that comes 5 years too late: "The United States Senate has confirmed Judge Merrick Garland."

[brucejoel99]

Merrick Garland was just confirmed as Justice Minister.

It's called Attorney General.

I know.

But I call the office Justice Minister.

Ah, so you're just being wrong on-purpose. Thank you for so readily conceding that.

[brucejoel99]

Will Garland's replacement be Biden's 1st federal judge nominee? I don't recall him making any nominations so far.

Possibly, but he also might just simultaneously submit his nominee to fill the Garland vacancy alongside a bunch of other nominees to fill a bunch of other judicial vacancies (many of which have arisen since Jan. 20th thanks to liberal judges who waited for a Democratic President to be sworn-in before they retired), in which case there technically wouldn't be a "1st federal judge nominee" among them as they'd all collectively share the distinction.

[brucejoel99]

So, has there been any word on Doug Jones lately?

Joining CNN as a political commentator.

[brucejoel99]

A sentence that comes 5 years too late: "The United States Senate has confirmed Judge Merrick Garland."

I don't know that I ever saw it said anywhere, but it's been my strong suspicion that Biden decided on Garland for AG when the Georgia Senate races were won. A McConnell-run Senate would have never confirmed a replacement for him on the DC Circuit Court. With another seat becoming vacant due to senior status, Biden will soon have 2 seats available to fill on that court. It's expected that Ketanji Brown Jackson is going to be elevated to that court, quite possibly on a path to the Supreme Court (which would probably mean a Breyer retirement in 2022).

Oh, I imagined he went with Garland because he'd very much be seen as protecting the DOJ's reputation as an independent body, in contrast to Yates, who - just like Lynch once upon a time - would've been a lightning rod for Republican campaigns going forward & thus an unnecessary headache, while Jones - as a known partisan & close personal friend of the Biden family - would've inevitably been mucked up by the GOP, especially on the Hunter Biden sh*t. Basically, appointing Garland allowed Biden to try & restore faith in an independent DOJ while avoiding the optics of appointing one of his friends to run the investigation of his son as AG, with the added bonus of getting to appoint a young liberal (i.e., Jackson) to the D.C. Circuit (i.e., to get her ready for the Supremes).

As for why he waited 'til the morning after the GA runoffs before announcing his AG, I just figured he didn't wanna take attention away from the Ossoff/Warnock campaigns, especially since he himself was already playing a not-insignificant role in it to begin with. After all, I have to imagine Garland was at least given the courtesy of more than a few hours' notice before the news went public.

[brucejoel99]

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.

[brucejoel99]

Does it usually take this long to nominate and confirm everyone? I know Biden didn't really have a normal transition and it wasn't even clear he'd have a majority in the Senate until January 6, but at the current rate it doesn't seem like we'll have everyone confirmed (when you include ambassadors, etc.) until the end of the year.

Within the context of the polarized world in which we now live, we're back to an average pace of confirmations, yes.

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/CraigCaplan/status/1371908751163281410

Wow, a unanimous confirmation vote incoming??

[brucejoel99]

https://twitter.com/SenateCloakroom/status/1372220130831269889?s=20

It's amazing to see something which they can all agree on. If only they shared the same sentiments about reality itself.

[brucejoel99]

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.

Nikki Haley too, believe it or not.

[brucejoel99]

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

Hopefully his 2024 campaign goes even worse than hers.

I don’t think that’s even possible.

At the very least, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, Mike Gravel, Seth Moulton, & Richard Ojeda would all beg to differ, & it's arguable (though perhaps moreso for some than others) that Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Michael Bennet, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Deval Patrick, Steve Bullock, Wayne Messam, & Joe Sestak would all do so too.

[brucejoel99]

Becerca got confirmed 50-49.

*Becerra

[brucejoel99]

Not technically the Cabinet but IT'S SPACEMAN TIME, MOTHERF**KERS:

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1372616400947314688

[brucejoel99]

Is that the best they could do for NASA? 78 year old space man Bill Nelson?

Eh, if we can have a 78-year-old be our literal Commander-in-Chief, then I see no reason why one can't be NASA Administrator too. And besides, I think it'd be hard to find somebody younger than Bill Nelson who has the same mix of congressional & NASA-based knowledge that would allow him to both negotiate (& fight, if necessary) with Congress for the funding that they want while not actively trying to f**k with NASA & their own undertakings like Bridenstine did (& that - inherently speaking - only he has, since only he was NASA's de-facto Capitol Hill liaison for 3 decades).

[brucejoel99]

More non-Cabinet stuff but NOW IT'S JUDGE TIME, MOTHERF**KERS!! God, what a glorious day today is:

https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1372623332999315457

[brucejoel99]

When will Biden select a budget replacement candidate ?

Not 'til Shalanda Young has been confirmed as the Deputy (&, by extension, the Acting) OMB Director.

[brucejoel99]

Now that we're done with the Cabinet secretaries, this goes out to anybody who spent the last 2+ months complaining that the confirmation process wasn't moving along fast enough:

The Senate will be busy this week, starting today with a vote to confirm Marty Walsh as Labor secretary. As we noted above, this will fill out the roster of President Joe Biden's Cabinet secretaries. This Senate got through confirmations faster than either the Obama or Trump administrations.

This comes despite the Democrats not taking over the Senate until mid-January following their upset victories in Georgia, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The Senate was not officially organized until Feb. 4.

[brucejoel99]

Walsh confirmation vote for Minister of Labour set for 17:30 today.

That's not what it's called.

Yeah, we've told him this before:

Merrick Garland was just confirmed as Justice Minister.

It's called Attorney General.

I know.

But I call the office Justice Minister.

Ah, so you're just being wrong on-purpose. Thank you for so readily conceding that.

No.

I like to call the office like it is called in most countries: Minister for Justice.

Then it's also Prime Minister Merkel and Prime Minister Kurz. Chancellor only exists in Switzerland as a different role and on universities. That's a ridiculous argument.

For some reason, he just doesn't care about how wrong he looks or he's being purposely ignorant. Either way, no bueno.

[brucejoel99]

I mean the guy was an astronaut...

If he can get more funding for telescopes I'm good with it.

Bill Nelson got voted from office in the midst of dementia rumors and a campaign that did nothing to demonstrate that they were false. Maybe he has what it takes to keep the patronage machine rolling, but that's a best-case scenario. Many of us have higher aspirations for NASA, however unrealistic they have proven.

lol is this really a thing? Because as somebody who actually saw the guy in-person multiple times since that campaign (both during it & at UF following his having left office), there was nothing that indicated that's the case.

[brucejoel99]

Pretty interesting development here:

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1374437476845060104?s=20

Hijacking confirmation votes for causes such as this - even though legitimate - is not a proper way to go. Nominees the president puts forwards deserve a fair consideration and vote and not a No vote based on demands you have upon the president. Disappointing move by Baldwin here.

*Duckworth