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Delay of Trump Appointments: Who’s to Blame?
We have a classic finger-pointing moment: Trump has had few positions filled in his administration, and theories abound on why appointments are taking so long. Of course, most opinions are driven by partisanship. But I’m going to try to clarify what is actually going on—or not going on.
One reason for the delays is that the Trump administration got off to a very slow start. There are 559 government posts that require Senate confirmation. On “Fox and Friends” Trump said, “I look at some of the jobs, and it’s people over people over people. What do all these people do?” He suggested he might not want to fill all those positions. But to conduct deep cuts, people need to be hired at the higher levels to decide which positions should be eliminated.
Other steps in the vetting process are causing delays, such as White House aides who must give their approval. And some potential nominees are not happy about the five-year post-employment ban on lobbying.
In the last couple of months the administration has finally been providing nominees to the Senate. According to the Wall Street Journal quoting the Partnership for Public Service, “…as of June 28 Mr. Trump had nominated 178 appointees but the Senate had confirmed only 46. Barack Obama had 183 nominees confirmed by that date in his first term, and George W. Bush 130.”
Even though Chuck Schumer blames the White House for the delays, he has admitted that the Senate had received 242 nominations but confirmed only 50 through June 30.
The WSJ, however, identified the Democrats as the culprits:
Democratic obstruction against nominees is nearly total, most notably including a demand for cloture filings for every nominee—no matter how minor the position. This means a two-day waiting period and then another 30 hours of debate. The 30-hour rule means Mr. Trump might not be able to fill all of those 400 positions in four years. The cloture rule also allows the minority to halt other business during the 30-hour debate period, which helps slow the GOP policy and oversight agenda.
There are other obscure rules that make the process slow and tedious, and the Republicans need to eliminate these barriers. Mitch McConnell is reluctant to make these changes happen.
The Washington Post claims that potential nominees are nervous about taking positions in the government:
Republicans say they are turning down job offers to work for a chief executive whose volatile temperament makes them nervous. They are asking head-hunters if their reputations could suffer permanent damage, according to 27 people the Washington Post interviewed to assess what is becoming a debilitating factor in recruiting political appointees.
Several people interviewed also described other reservations:
Potential candidates question whether they could make a lasting contribution in an administration whose policies often change directions. They worry that anyone in the White House, even in a mid-level post, faces the possibility of sizable legal bills serving on a team that is under investigation. And then there are the tweets.
‘You can count me out,’ said an attorney who served in the George W. Bush administration and has turned down senior-level legal posts at several agencies, including the Justice Department. This attorney, like others who talked candidly about job offers from the administration, spoke on the condition of anonymity, either because their employers do business with the government or they fear retribution from Republican leaders.
Fortunately, positions that don’t require Senate approval are being filled. At the same time, these people aren’t influential and have little to no say in decisions that are made at higher levels.
Although these appointments linger in the background of the controversies over health care, tax reform and, of course, Russia, there are people who still keep the wheels of government turning. They could be instrumental in carrying out policies on national security, economic progress, and international issues. They are the ones who are supposed to make things happen behind the scenes. On one hand, government still limps along; on the other, there may be gaps and missteps with not enough qualified people minding the store. And of course, there may be reason to be concerned about people who may not be invested in a successful administration.
As I said in my introduction, everyone seems to have a political axe to grind. In one way or another, filling these positions depends on the administration providing viable employees in a timely manner. The Republicans are also going to have to eliminate rules that cause roadblocks to Senate approvals. And finally, the Trump administration will find credible people if they find their way out of the scandals created by themselves and the MSM, and if they tone down the rhetoric. Let’s hope they get on with it soon.
Published in Politics
Agree. There are plenty people for those jobs. We need to learn to ignore the fake news spouted by the MSM, aided and abetted by the Dems behind the scenes.
Who’s permission do you need? If you mean mine, go for it, Hoyacon. I’d love to see your suggestions!!
I thought about this, too, Randy. They’ve interviewed a few people, but we don’t even know who they are or if they’d be considered!
Indeed! But let’s skip the duels this time around! ;-)
I wasn’t thinking of your permission, but was being overly cautious. Let’s start over. This guy.
This entire topic is being over thought. The GOP leadership in congress has no interest in helping the administration. End of story. The feckless GOP will be replaced soon by a new party with courage.
That “qualified” individuals don’t want to be subjected to the ignominy of analysis by our current Senate is hardly news. The core problem is the abysmal lack of leadership in Congress. Period. Not to mention that “reporting” is highly suspect and a component of the tsunami of fake news. Other than those quibbles, your comment is illuminating.
I’m sure that same article with its anonymous sources mentioned the massive obstruction from the dems too.
I’ll quit my job and go serve now if someone asked me. Lawyers, lawsuits, Clinton henchmen and our different president be damned. We are running out of time.
Hey doc! The new surgeon general hasn’t been confirmed yet! ;-)
Looks like a winner to me!
This will further cement my unpopularity around these parts, but I can’t exactly blame them. I see Trump administration officials get the legs cut out from under them almost every week – why would you subject yourself to that?
I don’t know how to have a discussion with someone if we can’t agree on an objective reality.
There is plenty of blame to go around.
I think this part and parcel of the democrat ‘strategy’ of denial. They hope to loose the election of 2018 on the same ground as 2016. Not just on the same issues, with the same policies, but ironically in many of the same states. If the go into the midterms and nationalize the election on grounds of impeachment and general anti-trump-ism without an alternative agenda. They’re screwed.
Granted they’ll do well in districts where they do well, but played out across the nation – they’ll loose the senate and remain the minority in the house.
They dont seem to understand their own culture anymore – as exemplified by Erin Burnett of CNN, not realizing what christian prayer looks like. She’d never heard of or seen the “laying of hands” prayer. They dont live in just a bubble. They live in an alternative reality, a durable misconception.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQKIcHccDSw
I agree, not only that, but the media will conduct a tremendous campaign of character assassination against any appointee. Someone would have to be wholly committed some policy goals to enter the arena, because anything and everything else in your life could be destroyed. There will be no fat book deals waiting for these guys once they’re out of office.
Unless they do a John Dean.
I don’t know about that–trying to think of some worthy examples. I think that I’ll stick with “What’s the point of a presidential appointment if I don’t get invited to Georgetown dinner parties?”
There are facts but no objective reality.
Maybe if you thought you might be called out, in the sense of “pistols for two and coffee for one,”* it might cut down on some of the lying.
*Patrick O’Brian.
Perhaps, but the crucible of the trump-derangement syndrome should filter out such people. For someone to go through hell – for the chance to achieve some heartfelt policy goal or other – to then turn around to write a scathing tattle-tale memoir that undermines the policies that they sacrificed to achieve, seems unlikely. I am thinking of people like Betsy DeVos, a true believer in her cause.
It’ll depend on how they re-enter their careers after, and what gets achieved during, the Trump administration.
This is where the RNC and the State Chairs can come to the rescue. The RNC should go to the state chairs and ask for lists of people who are willing to go to DC to fill these positions. They should be able to draw from a much larger pool of people who have cut their teeth at the state level and can stand to live in DC for the next 7 years. This also helps drain the swamp metaphor as we are bringing outsiders to do insiders work. They don’t need to worry about the 5 year ban on lobbying since they can always go home to their state when done and continue to work there.
We have 33 governors and 70 state legislatures. Time to exploit them for the greater good.
In my last comment #47, I made what might have sounded like a flippant remark. It wasn’t intended to be, although I do want to correct one thing. I had an entire post that included the topic of objective reality. Almost all of us agreed there was an objective reality, but it is extremely difficult for a human being to know it, never mind agree with another person on what it actually is. That’s why the OP is difficult to tackle. Perhaps the word “blame” is the wrong word, but who or what is responsible for the very slow process of completing appointments is complex. I think we can all express our opinions, but they are just that. Regarding people turning down jobs with the administration, I’m sure that is true. I also question how many people were interviewed out of all the potential candidates, what percentage of the whole do they represent, did WaPo make an effort to get a cross-section of candidates or favor those who didn’t want to join up? We simply don’t know. So almost all of us would agree that based on its track record, WaPo’s veracity can be called into question. And we come away coming to certain conclusions, each of us, and they are all worthy of consideration.
Excellent, creative suggestion, TWW! I love it. It deepens the pool, too, and all your other reasons make sense, too. Thanks!
I am a Past President of a Provincial Chair (Id be a state county chair essentially in the US). This is how things are done up in Canada. Though we have a lot more appointments than the US so its a more common way of doing things.
Thanks for expounding on this, Susan. At this point , after all the proof of media lack of veracity and loading their “news” articles with opinions and not facts, to accept this statement from WAPO about Trump nominees without any question is surprising to me. Especially here at Ricochet. OTOH, what @hoyacon posted, even though supported by WAPO, is empirical data from which we can be more confidant in drawing conclusions, most of which have already been posted here.
I just came back from visiting my daughter in Washington DC. She’s very involved through her business in the political scene and has interesting connections. I was told by two different gentlemen in the Department of Defense that the GOP Congress is responsible for blocking their ability to get the people they need.
Interesting. Did they explain how?
Like Jamie, I’d love to know what this is about, GWW.
I almost didn’t write that comment as one of the men, in particular, is someone I admire and feel an obligation to respect his confidence. He was very discouraged about the state of politics in Washington D.C. and especially with Paul Ryan. I’m not sure he said anything we haven’t heard before, yet it was a confirmation that the obstruction we all see is not coming from Dems only. On the other hand, there are many Trump supporters who are working hard behind the scenes to help the president.
I don’t want you to feel your breaking a confidence, so you don’t have to answer this. But was he suggesting that the GOP is intentionally slowing down the confirmation process, too?
According to Hugh Hewitt, the Blue Slip process in the Senate is responsible for slowing down approvals where senators in the state where the nominee is from approves or disapproves the choice. They are returning them slowly or not at all. Some feel the blue slip is an outdated procedure in need of alteration or outright abolishment.