Presidents lead the federal government with the help of a group of close advisers and the heads of federal agencies like the Department of Justice and the Pentagon. Some members of the Cabinet, like vice president and White House chief of staff, do not need Senate approval. But most of them do.
Why does the Senate get a say in who works for the president?
Article II is the section of the Constitution that deals with the executive branch. In Section II, it makes clear that while the president is the executive, he hires certain positions spelled out in the Constitution and others established by law with the “advice and consent” of senators. If the Senate is in recess, the president can make temporary appointments.
How does the nomination and confirmation process work?
In modern times, a president-elect nominates his picks for top officials ASAP after winning the election. Planning should ideally begin before Election Day. Oversight committees in the Senate can conduct confirmation hearings before Inauguration Day on January 20. They can refer nominees to the full Senate or quick votes when the new president takes the oath of office. But things frequently take a lot longer.
How long does a nomination take?
Longer than it used to. Even after Democratic senators pushed through changes to the rules in 2013 to remove the filibuster from confirmation of administration officials, the two parties have gotten more adversarial about the process. When Trump started his first term, he had two confirmations for 26 nominees. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he had one confirmation for 36 nominees. The slowness continues. The three presidents before Donald Trump’s first term all had more than 200 nominees confirmed by 200 days in office. Trump had 119 and Biden had 118 confirmed nominees at that point.
Is there a way around the nomination process?
Sort of. There is that mention in the Constitution of recess appointments – something Trump has said he wants to use. While his fellow Republicans who will control the Senate in January have not rejected the idea, leaders like Sen. John Thune also clearly don’t want to give away their power over oversight. Plus, recess appointments only last until the end of the next Senate session, usually around the calendar year.
Trump, frustrated with the process during his first term, appointed multiple people to be “acting” heads of agencies, but they can only serve in that capacity for a matter of months, according to law. There are also limits on who can be made an acting secretary.
Read more on the Senate’s Cabinet confirmation process here.
