Government staffing:
White House, Dems trade barbs over slow pace of filling vacancies.
WASHINGTON — The White House complained that Senate Democrats are obstructing President Trump’s qualified nominees. Democrats countered that the administration has only itself to blame for the slow pace of filling vacancies.
The Senate has confirmed only 48 of 197 presidential nominations to agencies, and only two of 23 judicial nominees have been confirmed, the White House said.
“If the White House is looking for the cause of the delay, they need only look in the mirror,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. “No administration in recent memory has been slower in sending nominees to the Senate.”
Trump has failed to submit names for hundreds of vacant jobs, and the administration has submitted incomplete paperwork or delayed ethics forms for many other nominees, Schumer said. At least seven nominees for Cabinet or senior-level positions have withdrawn, including a nominee for labor secretary and two nominees for Army secretary.
Both sides stretched the point in attacking the other party. Trump has nominated far fewer people to top-level jobs than his immediate predecessors, while those who have been nominated have waited longer to be confirmed.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short accused Democrats of thwarting the will of the American people.
“Democrats even walked out of committee hearings to deny a quorum, like school children taking their toys from the playground. But it’s the American people who are being hurt,” Short said at a White House briefing.
Short complained that deputy secretaries remain unconfirmed at six Cabinet-level departments, including Defense, Energy, Interior and Health and Human Services.
A total of 32 nominees are waiting for a floor vote in the Senate, with 133 more waiting for consideration from various committees, Short said. Only 50 Trump nominees have been confirmed so far, compared with 202 officials confirmed at the same point in the Obama administration, he said.
A report by the Congressional Research Service said Trump had nominated only 242 people to key executive posts as of June 30, compared with 336 and 379 nominated in the same period by former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, respectively.
The Senate had confirmed 186 Obama nominees by June 30, 2009, and 133 Bush nominees by June 2001, the report said.