WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate committees gave the green light Tuesday to several of President Donald Trump’s picks for Cabinet posts, putting the top-level nominations on a glide path to confirmation just days into the new administration.
As Republicans criticized Democrats for not moving quickly enough on Trump’s selections, the GOP-led panels easily approved his choices to lead the Transportation, Housing, and Commerce departments. The president’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, also won broad support.
But several of Trump’s nominations were moving slowly, escalating the partisan bickering.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, forced a one-week delay – until Jan. 31 – of the committee’s vote on Trump’s attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Feinstein said senators “owe it” to the more than 1 million women who marched in Washington and other locations on Saturday to be careful in considering Sessions’ nomination and his willingness to protect equal rights. She also said the committee received 188 pages of new material Sunday that needs to be reviewed. Committee rules allow any member of the committee to delay a vote.