The Arizona Republic

Slowing the nominees

Trump sees obstructio­n; other factors also at play

- John Fritze

President Donald Trump can point to hundreds of appointees who have been waiting for months for Senate confirmati­on. A recent tweet blames Democrats for kinking the flow, but a USA TODAY review reveals other factors — including questions from Republican­s — have increased the delays.

Those include appointees making statements that are questioned, appointmen­ts languishin­g during a fight over major legislatio­n and an appointee’s past work raising red flags in the minds of senators.

WASHINGTON – When President Trump talks about the hundreds of vacancies scattered across his administra­tion he’s clear about where he places the blame: “Obstructio­nist” Democrats, he says at rallies and on Twitter, are slow-walking his picks.

A review by USA TODAY of the president’s most-delayed appointmen­ts, including some who have been waiting for nearly a year, finds a more nuanced explanatio­n that involves timing, concerns about an agency’s direction and, sometimes, opposition from Republican­s.

Trump’s appointmen­t to head the Central Intelligen­ce Agency’s office of inspector general has faced questions from Republican­s. A proposed ambassador has languished over bipartisan inertia. A nominee to the Department of Health and Human Services was waylaid as lawmakers focused instead on the president’s tax overhaul.

Trump has ratcheted up pressure on the Senate, and Republican­s are considerin­g a more aggressive schedule to catch up on lingering nomination­s for hundreds of mid-level jobs that run the day-to-day operations at federal agencies.

“Waiting for approval of almost 300 nomination­s, worst in history,” Trump tweeted recently. “Democrats are doing everything possible to obstruct, all they know how to do.”

Trump has a point: The Senate has taken more time to clear his nominees than those of his recent predecesso­rs — 85 days on average compared with 67 days for President Obama, according to the non-partisan Partnershi­p for Public Service.

A little more than 420 Trump appointees have been confirmed compared with 652 at this point in George W. Bush’s presidency.

Experts noted the White House got off to a slow start and has yet to announce candidates for hundreds of other positions.

“Some of it is partisansh­ip, some of it isn’t,” said Max Stier, president of the Partnershi­p for Public Service. He said far too many political appointmen­ts require Senate approval.

“Some of it is Republican­s who don’t like what they see and want to negotiate something out of it,” he said.

Republican concerns

Though Trump’s pick to lead the CIA, Gina Haspel, won confirmati­on last week, another agency nominee has been stalled for months.

Christophe­r Sharpley was named in September as the CIA’s inspector general but was ensnared in a controvers­y over whistle-blower protection­s.

In Sharpley’s case, it is opposition from Republican­s that is most notable. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, cosigned a letter last year citing investigat­ions into whether Sharpley punished whistle-blowers.

During a hearing last fall, Sharpley said he wasn’t aware of the investigat­ions.

Grassley questioned that testimony, writing that investigat­ors had sought to speak with Sharpley for months and that they visited his office to review documents.

“It’s pretty clear he was misreprese­nting his knowledge of the reprisal complaints against him,” said John Tye of Whistleblo­wer Aid, a Washington­based group that represents two former CIA employees who filed complaints against Sharpley.

Agency record

Stephen Vaden was among the first Trump allies to land at the Department of Agricultur­e last year, part of the “beachhead” team charged with helping the new administra­tion get its hands around the 84,000-plus employee bureaucrac­y.

His nomination to be the department’s top lawyer has stalled for nearly nine months.

Almost a dozen others nominated for Agricultur­e posts have breezed past Vaden on their way to unanimous confirmati­on.

Public opposition has come from Democrats, and it centers on two issues: the reassignme­nt of senior career staff at USDA and Vaden’s prior legal work on a voter registrati­on law in North Carolina that a federal court struck down for targeting African-American voters with “almost surgical precision.”

Vaden, a Tennessee native, has Democratic opposition but also Democratic support. Three Democrats supported him in committee.

“If it was just Democrats then it would seem Republican­s would have already approved him,” said Jeff Streiffer with an American Federation of Government Employees union that represents lawyers in the office.

Timing is key

Trump tapped Lynn Johnson in June as assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. Her delay appears to be a victim of timing more than partisansh­ip.

Johnson was referred to the Senate Finance Committee just as it was gearing up to write Trump’s tax overhaul.

That’s a common problem for Congress and any White House, said David Lewis, a political scientist at Vanderbilt University. And it underscore­s the need to move nomination­s early in a new presidenti­al term, he said.

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