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

[emailking]

Looks like the Pubs aren't trying to derail any of these nominations.  Surprised?

A little.

[emailking]

I don't think it obviates the point though. The Senators (all of them) are the ones that have to pass the organizing resolution, and it's stupid of them for not doing so. It can also be nucleared through which you can argue might be ok for a one off if it could save lives.

[emailking]

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

[emailking]

sometimes I forget people on atlas have lives so this surprised me for some reason LOL

Sometimes I forget that posters don't look like the people they have in their sigs, lol.

[emailking]

I'm honestly sick and tired of treating someone who voted with Trump more often than not, voted for 80% of his judges, and already has or plans to cast several deciding votes against the dems in this congress, as a Democrat. We need to kick him out of the caucus.

Sounds like a good way to ensure McConnell can block Covid relief and prevent Breyer from retiring.

[emailking]

Well we see now why Mitch didn't let Garland have a hearing. He would have been confirmed easily.

[emailking]

I agree they should stick by her. Force the Republicans & Manchin to vote her down.

[emailking]

I agree they should stick by her. Force the Republicans & Manchin to vote her down.

Agreed. Has the added effect of giving us a recent ironclad case to point to of Manchin voting against the party line in a meaningful way and makes his persistent disloyalty clearer than ever.

You're both really overestimating the extent to which your typical Democratic-partisan-on-the-street cares about the Office of Management and Budget.

I don't think they care about it at all, but I don't think that obviates either of our points.

[emailking]

I think Becerra should have been the priority after Garland.

[emailking]

They should confirm many lower level appointments in one vote. I know that's not the rules but, well, it should be.

[emailking]

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.

[emailking]

I mean the guy was an astronaut...

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

[emailking]

Becerra likely could have been confirmed eventually without Collins, but she is on the moderate side of the party given that she's voting for a lot of the more controversial nominees.

[emailking]

Well I see her and Murkowski as moderates as well as Manchin.

[emailking]

Manchin also voted for Kavanaugh.

[emailking]

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.

Well you and I may have different aspirations. I want more telescopes, not more rovers and manned missions.

I don't care about rumors. If he develops dementia he can resign.

[emailking]

He should probably appoint somebody somewhere that meets his original pledge when possible and maybe tell her that, but I don't think she should block existing appointments.

[emailking]

So Schumer asked for that?

[emailking]

When does a confirmation become official such that the Senate cannot just reverse it?

[emailking]

Soldier’s missing pay triggered Army secretary double confirmation snafu

As I suspected. Senator Cramer (R-ND) was unhappy that one of his constituents, deployed overseas to Africa, was not being paid properly.

I understand how he can hold up a nomination all by himself but not reverse it. Still very unclear on that and why there was unanimous consent for the reversal.

[emailking]

Soldier’s missing pay triggered Army secretary double confirmation snafu

As I suspected. Senator Cramer (R-ND) was unhappy that one of his constituents, deployed overseas to Africa, was not being paid properly.

I understand how he can hold up a nomination all by himself but not reverse it. Still very unclear on that and why there was unanimous consent for the reversal.

Schumer agreed to the reversal as an accommodation to the Senator, since his issue was one that was resolvable. These are the sort of bipartisan comity things that Atlas simply doesn't understand.

Yeah that's fine. But why not give him what he wants instead of revoke the nomination so he can use it as leverage to get what he wants, and then acquiesce.

[emailking]

I still think it's a good point though. We could change the law to allow a lot of positions to be directly appointed by their superiors in the org chart, without need for a Senate confirmation. And even if we don't do that, there is nothing stopping the Senate, other than its own rules, from confirming dozens of nominees at once in a single vote.

[emailking]

I still think it's a good point though. We could change the law to allow a lot of positions to be directly appointed by their superiors in the org chart, without need for a Senate confirmation. And even if we don't do that, there is nothing stopping the Senate, other than its own rules, from confirming dozens of nominees at once in a single vote.

There is no way to set that up procedurally except:

1) Unanimous Consent (naturally requires support of every senator)
2) Some sort of mini-nuclear option procedure, which creates precedent that is difficult to dispose of, and which Manchin won't acquiesce to anyways.

I agree that dysfunction is there but the point is that it's ridiculous that we can't fill these spots much more quickly and is unbecoming of us that we don't have a better system in place.

[emailking]

Harris has now broken as many tie votes as Cheney did in 8 years.

[emailking]

I very much appreciate all the updates but any chance you can briefly list the position when it's not a tweet? I know it's somewhere in the thread before but I don't remember and find myself googling last name + nomination to find out what all these are.