“It’s a big day” as the Senate preps to confirm a “slate of absolute winners,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) said during an appearance on Breitbart News Daily, discussing the plan this week as confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks begin.
The confirmation hearings official kick off on Tuesday — one week ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
“This week for the Senate, they’re going to work through the confirmation of President Trump’s cabinet … and it’s very important that they get that done,” he said, noting that the first individual on the schedule is Doug Collins — Trump’s choice for Secretary for Veterans Affairs — at 9:00 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
“What I think is cool is the first person that they’re seeing tomorrow morning at nine o’clock is Doug Collins, and that’s for the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. And I think that really shows that President Trump — and our Senate for scheduling this — really are taking the care of our veterans very seriously” the congressman said, noting that Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense begins later that day.
“Then we’ve got Doug Burgum for interior and Krisi [Noem] for homeland security on Wednesday, along with Pam Bondi for the Justice Department, Sean Duffy — fellow Wisconsinite for transportation, John Ratcliffe [for] the CIA, Marco Rubio [for the] State Department, Chris Wright [Energy Secretary], and then, you know, on and on and on,” he continued before highlighting one of the nominees he is most excited about: Lee Zeldin.
“One of the problems, or one of the biggest problems that we’ve had. … Joe Biden got into office. He started a war on agriculture, closing the Keystone Pipeline, kept our input costs incredibly high. They screwed up this immigration stuff by leaving open the border. So we have 20 million people or so, we don’t know who the heck they are. That doesn’t help the labor market at all. And then the regulatory climate, they said, has been crushing our farmers. So what I want people really to pay attention to is a pretty cool dude. He’s going to get confirmed hopefully on Thursday. It’s Lee Zeldin for the EPA,” he said.
LISTEN:
Breitbart · Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) – January 13, 2025“No one wants to talk about the EPA until they start destroying everything. So I’m very, very excited about Lee’s Zeldin getting into the EPA and getting some sanity back in there,” he said.
Van Orden said he believes Zeldin is more than qualified because, being from New York, he has witnessed what bad environmental policy does.
“What’s happening to L.A. right now, burning down. How many 14,000, 15,000 homes have been destroyed because people have gone over the top, didn’t let people clear brush out, and now they’re blaming it on Trump and Elon Musk. It’s absurd,” he said. “So I really want someone from the state that has lived under the yoke of these out of control environmentalist organizations to bring sanity back to D.C. I think it’s a fantastic choice. I’m super proud.”
All in all, the congressman said these confirmation hearings are a big deal in the Senate.
“They’re working all the way through Thursday, for sure,” he joked, later adding, “I really have to commend President Trump of again, a slate of absolute winners here that are going to do great things for the United States.”
Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
