Trump Cabinet still sparse amid toil, opposition
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration has been simultaneously splashy and slow to take shape, hindered by its own rocky transition and congressional Democratic opposition that shows no sign of easing.
Six nominees for Cabinet-level positions have been confirmed by the Senate. More than two dozen other Cabinet-level seats remain vacant, the slack only partly picked up by acting secretaries, including in the Departments of Energy, Education, and Health and Human Services.
The tardiness, in turn, has consequences that can magnify over time.
“Anytime you have an acting anything, you have someone who serves not just at the pleasure of the president, but with a degree of trepidation and a question of their legitimacy,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “Having somebody permanent gives them an ability to speak about the future; otherwise they’re just speaking about today.”
Ultimately, Trump will have about 4,100 administration positions to fill, including about 1,240 that require Senate confirmation. So far, only about three dozen nominees have been announced, according to a database maintained by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post.
This week, the Senate is set to take up more Cabinet-level confirmations, starting Tuesday with Education Department nominee Betsy DeVos.
The Democratic base, in particular, appears dead set against DeVos, with calls jamming Capitol Hill phone lines and social media accounts lit up to demand massive resistance. Some of it seems to foreshadow a grass-roots Democratic insistence that the party’s senators filibuster the big nominee coming down the tracks, Judge Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.
Next up are Republican Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, nominee for secretary of health and human services, and Steven Mnuchin, chosen for treasury secretary.