Senate Democrats are expected to allow votes on two nominees.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats will allow votes to confirm two of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees immediately after his inauguration Friday — but are promising to delay proceedings for many of the rest.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Democrats would agree to vote Friday on the nominations of Defense Secretary pick Gen. James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary choice Gen. John Kelly, two men who have support on both sides of the aisle. Schumer added that Democrats would be willing to start debating Friday the nomination of CIA Director nominee Mike Pompeo, as well, and vote on his nomination if time allows.

But Schumer added that if Trump doesn’t send some of his other, more controversial nominees back to Senate committees for more questioning, Democrats will use the Senate floor to lob their complaints and questions about those nominees, potentially drawing out the process of confirming the Cabinet picks by several days each.

“We will not be dilatory for the sake of it,” Schumer said, adding: “If Republicans continue to stonewall and cover up the serious issues that many of those nominees are trying to avoid, they should be prepared to have those debates on the floor of the full Senate.”

Republicans have protested that they are putting Trump’s nominees through the same committee process as President Barack Obama’s nominees when he took office. They say that Democrats are asking for a comparatively unreasonable amount of time and paperwork — such as the tax returns of many nominees — as an attempt to keep Trump from getting his Cabinet installed in a timely fashion.

GOP leaders had hoped to hold confirmation votes for several more of Trump’s nominees following his inauguration Friday afternoon.

But Democrats say there are real problems with Trump’s nominees, particularly the wealthy ones, whose holdings and, in some cases, incomplete filings have raised questions about conflicts of interest.

Schumer accused Republicans of trying to “jam through (Trump’s) nominees” and “attempting to orchestrate a cover-up of the president-elect’s ‘swamp Cabinet’ ” — a term Democrats have adopted to mock Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”

Kelly

Mattis