Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Pence breaks Senate tie on nomination
VP takes historic step after Senate’s 50-50 deadlock
Vote was the first time a Cabinet confirmation was decided by a vice presidential tiebreaker.
WASHINGTON — The Senate narrowly confirmed Betsy DeVos as education secretary on Tuesday, with Vice President Pence casting a historic tiebreaking vote after senators deadlocked over her fitness for the job.
The entire Democratic caucus of 48 senators voted against DeVos, as did two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who said they did not think that DeVos was qualified for the job. The remaining 50 Republicans voted for DeVos, setting up a 50-50 tie that Pence broke with his vote shortly after noon.
It marked the first time that a vice president’s tiebreaking vote was needed to confirm a Cabinet secretary, according to Daniel Holt, an assistant historian in the Senate Historical Office.
And it was the first time a vice president cast any tiebreaking vote in the Senate since Dick Cheney did so nine years ago.
The confirmation vote came after dozens of Democrats took to the Senate floor to speak out against DeVos for most of the day Monday and through the night into Tuesday, a 24-hour lastditch effort to persuade one more Republican to break party ranks and derail the confirmation. They argued that she doesn’t understand or believe in public schools and that she is not committed to enforcing civil rights laws related to education and should therefore be disqualified from leading the Education Department.
But as the hours wore on, it became increasingly clear that their effort would fail.
“I hope against hope that another Republican senator will have the courage of the senators from Alaska and Maine and join us,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., said Tuesday morning. But if that doesn’t happen, Schumer said, “we Democrats are very proud of what we have done, because the nominee is so unqualified — and now Americans now know that.”
The Democratic speeches were interrupted occasionally by Republicans coming to the nominee’s defense.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said DeVos — who has no professional experience in public education — would bring “fresh eyes” to the job and push for more opportunities for poor and disadvantaged children.
“We need to make sure that every child in every ZIP code has a quality choice,” Scott said Tuesday, moments before the scheduled vote.
President Donald Trump also weighed in via Twitter: “Senate Dems protest to keep the failed status quo. Betsy DeVos is a reformer, and she is going to be a great Education Sec. for our kids!” he wrote.
DeVos was sworn in hours after the Senate vote by Pence, who told the new Cabinet member: “I wasn’t just voting for you. Having seen your devotion to improving the quality of education for some of our most vulnerable children across the nation for so many years, I was also casting a vote for America’s children.”
“I can tell you, my vote for Betsy DeVos was the easiest vote I ever cast,” Pence said.
DeVos has faced an unprecedented wave of popular backlash and partisan opposition: Since the Education Department was established in 1979, nominees to lead it have always been easily confirmed, often on voice votes or with unanimous support. The closest confirmation vote for an education secretary was 49 to 40 in 2016, in favor of John King, who served during the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency.
But DeVos is unlike previous nominees in that she has no personal or professional experience in public education or elected office.
A Michigan billionaire and major Republican donor, she has spent three decades using her wealth and political clout to advocate for alternatives to public schools, particularly taxpayer-funded vouchers to help parents pay tuition for private and religious schools. She also has advocated for a loosely regulated variety of charter schools.
Republicans have defended her as an outsider who would challenge the status quo and as a conservative who would reduce the federal footprint in public schools. They are keen to change course after eight years in which the Obama Education Department exercised an unusually high level of influence.
It remains to be seen whether the push-back against DeVos across the country and on Capitol Hill would affect her ability to advance her agenda in office. In addition to DeVos, Republicans hope to confirm a series of other divisive nominees this week: Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions as attorney general, GOP Rep. Tom Price of Georgia as health secretary and financier Steven Mnuchin as treasury secretary.
Also Tuesday, the Senate Veterans Affairs’ Committee voted unanimously for physician David Shulkin to be veterans affairs secretary. Shulkin has been an undersecretary of health at the VA since 2015.