At this rate, the United States Senate would take eleven and a half years to confirm our nominees. Eleven and a half years to confirm our nominees.

superbeets · Mar 16, 2018

[h=1]Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short[/h]

[FONT=&quot]Issued on: March 16, 2018

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[FONT=&quot] Since I know many of you are interested in White House personnel issues, we wanted to take a few minutes to discuss the historic obstruction that we have faced by Senator Schumer and Senate Democrats in confirming our nominees to enable us to fill out our White House.

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[FONT=&quot]The Senate, obviously, has the constitutional responsibility for advice and consent. So what that looks like in real life is the President selects a nominee, they then undergo an entire FBI background check, they work with the Office of Government Ethics to de-conflict financial issues — and that’s a process that takes a good amount of time, a good amount of resources.

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[FONT=&quot]Only then, after cleared through an FBI background check and the Office of Government Ethics, is a nominee submitted to the United States Senate. When they get to the Senate, they go through several additional evaluations, including meetings with staff, meetings with the members on both sides of the aisle. The nominee then undergoes a hearing and the committee then votes on the nominee to get out of that committee.[/FONT]

superbeets · Mar 16, 2018

[FONT=&quot]At that point, the nominee moves to the Senate floor for full confirmation. Traditionally, the Senate routinely confirms the administration’s nominees once out of committee. It is there to respect the will of the American people and the election for an administration to fill out its roles under a new President. Instead, what Senator Schumer has done is to require cloture votes to essentially slow down the process and to obstruct.

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[FONT=&quot]At this point, in the past four administrations combined — the last four administrations — the Senate had conducted 17 cloture votes combined; cloture vote, in essence, being a filibuster on a nominee. Seventeen cloture votes in the last four administrations combined, at this point. Today, the Senate has had 79 cloture votes in the first 14 months of our administration. Seventeen, over the last four administrations, versus seventy-nine in the first 14 months of our administration. That is roughly five times the number of the last four administrations combined.

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[FONT=&quot]Senator Schumer is essentially weaponizing a Senate procedure and demanding cloture votes on our nominees that he even eventually supports. Eleven of the President’s nominees have been approved without a single dissenting vote, yet still forced to go through a 30-hours of debate to essentially slow down the Senate calendar simply for the purpose of obstruction. Even Senate Democrats have begun to call this out and to say it is getting to the point of ridiculous.[/FONT]

superbeets · Mar 16, 2018

[FONT=&quot]At this rate, the United States Senate would take eleven and a half years to confirm our nominees. Eleven and a half years to confirm our nominees.

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[FONT=&quot]So, let me give you one more example of the comparison, historically. In the first entire term of the George H.W. Bush administration, his entire four years, he faced one cloture vote. In the entire four years of the Clinton administration, he faces 10 cloture votes. Under the George W. Bush administration, the entire first term, he faced four cloture votes. Barack Obama faced 17 in his first entire four years. We have faced 79 in our first 14 months. That adds up to 32 combined in the entire first four years of those administrations, relative to 79 in our first less than a year and a half.

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[FONT=&quot]So let me give a couple more illustrations of specific individuals. Pat Pizzella is our nominee to be the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor. We still do not have a Deputy Secretary, a number two person, at the Department of Labor. Pat Pizzella was nominated 269 days ago. He was reported out of committee in October. He was confirmed in the George W. Bush administration by a unanimous voice vote. So he’s already been confirmed by a previous Congress without any dissention, and yet, 269 days later, we still do not have a Deputy Secretary at the Department of Labor.

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[FONT=&quot]At the EPA, the Deputy Administrator, Andrew Wheeler, he was nominated 152 days ago. Scott Pruitt, still to this day, does not have a deputy, a number two, serving at the EPA. He was reported out of committee in November.[/FONT]

superbeets · Mar 16, 2018

Yleem Poblete will be Assistant Secretary for Arms Control at the Department of State when confirmed. Obviously, Arms Control is an important issue for national security and particularly heightened in light of upcoming negotiations with North Korea. She was nominated 298 days ago, and has been previously a Staff Director at the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Isabel Patelunas, nominated 270 days ago, reported out of committee in July, has been nominated to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Intelligence and Analysis. This helps work with many of the sanctions that you have covered.

So many of these positions, in fact, are national security positions. And lastly, Kevin McAleenan, to be Commissioner of the Customs and Border Patrol, was nominated 298 days ago. Obviously, it’s been a priority of this administration to highlight the security threats we face on our southern border. Kevin, in taking that role, will be safeguarding our borders and helping to prevent terrorists and contraband from entering the United States. Yet, Congress and the Senate continues to dither and not have a confirmation vote.

We are pleased that he finally got through a cloture vote last week. We expect him to be confirmed on Monday night. But 298 days later — as the American people have been anxious to make sure that our south border is being secured, we still do not have a head of the Customs and Border Patrol.

[FONT=&quot]So this level of obstruction is beyond historic. It is something that — as you, I know, are very focused on personnel inside the White House — we ask that you also shed light on the historic obstruction that’s happening in the United States Senate to make sure that we are able to fill out our administration to do the job of the American people and to help make sure that our country is safe and secure.[/FONT]

Michelangelo · Mar 17, 2018

The President has been in office for 14 months and is still waiting for many assistant cabinet positions to be filled.

Chuck Schumer are you sure you work for the American people?

Trump is being obstructed everywhere he turns.