Senate OKs nominee for Small Business chief
WASHINGTON — In a rare display of bipartisanship, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed former wrestling entertainment executive Linda McMahon to lead the Small Business Administration as part of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
The Senate voted 81-19 to confirm McMahon, who helped start World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.
Senate Majorit y Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said McMahon will “prioritize growing jobs over growing government bureaucracy.”
McMahon, of Connecticut, served as chief executive officer at WWE before stepping down in 2009 to run for the Senate. She helped WWE grow from about a dozen employees into an enterprise with more than 800.
She lost races in 2010 and 2012 for the Senate, spending nearly $100 million of her own money on the campaigns, but both of her Democratic opponents — Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy — voted in favor of her confirmation Tuesday.
S e n . J e a n n e S h a h e e n , D-N.H., has opposed several of Trump’s Cabinet nominees but supported McMahon. McMahon understands the agency’s vital role in the economy through loans, disaster assistance and educational services, she said.
The Senate has been split mostly along par t y lines on most of Trump’s Cabinet choices. But McMahon breezed through her confirmation hearing, and a Senate panel moved her nomination to the full Senate with a vote of 18-1.
The McMahon confirmation likely represents a lull before more hotly contested confirmation battles, notably that of Andrew Puzder to serve as the next labor secretary. Four Republicans on the Senate panel considering his nomination aren’t saying publicly whether they will vote for him.