(Quin Hillyer, Liberty Headlines) Republican insiders have grumbled for nearly two months about the slow pace of Trump appointees getting placed in executive branch agencies, and now Republican senators are going public with their frustrations.

Media reports suggest that some of the slow pace is due to Trump administration disorganization, some due to Republican intra-party infighting, and some (or maybe a lot) due to Democratic obstructionism both in the Senate and in the agencies themselves.

[kpolls]

James Arkin at Real Clear Politics gives a good overview:

Republican senators are growing impatient with the White House’s slow pace in filling out the administration and are pushing President Trump to speed the nomination process, concerned that the dearth of Cabinet deputies could hamper the executive branch’s ability to function.

The Senate has taken longer to confirm Trump’s nominees than it has those of past presidents, but Trump also has been slower than his predecessors to make nominations.

Of the more than 1,200 jobs that require Senate confirmation, 553 are considered “key” positions by the nonpartisan nonprofit, Partnership for Public Service. The vast majority of those 553, including deputy, assistant and associate secretary posts, remain unfilled.

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[later in the piece]…

Part of the problem is the result of Senate Democrats using parliamentary maneuvers at the beginning of the administration to slow down the confirmation of Cabinet secretaries. It’s hard to fill high sub-Cabinet spots if the Secretary is not in place. By February 11, for example, the Washington Free Beacon reported that “Democratic obstructionism” caused the “confirmation process [to be] moving slowest since George Washington’s administration.” As the publication explained, “Senate Democrats, vowing to use ‘everything’ they can to stop Trump’s nominees, have used procedural tricks like boycotting committee meetings to slow the confirmation process to a historically slow pace.”

Even for Trump’s “landing teams” – people, usually with prior government experience, hired on a temporary basis to help smooth the transition to a new administration – Democrats have been raising Cain….

The full story is here.

 

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