There’s a good reason why some Democrats may oppose a streamlined process for Senate confirmations
Protests erupt in Chris Wright's confirmation hearing
Protestors interrupt and are escorted out of Chris Wright's confirmation hearing to be President Elect Trump's Energy Secretary
The Senate will likely have a few Cabinet nominees who are relatively non-controversial. In the interest of time, senators could agree to expedite the process and confirm an individual nominee or several nominees by voice vote or unanimous consent.
As long as there are no objections among all 100 (currently 99) senators.
This speeds things up in the Senate, where floor time is at a premium.
However, there’s a good reason why some Democrats may oppose a streamlined process for this.
From left to right, Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio. (Fox News)
It’s not because they’re trying to clog up the Senate plumbing. Democrats may demand a roll call vote on nominees they support in order to show that they voted in a bipartisan fashion to confirm some of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees.
Democrats are likely to reject the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Defense secretary. However, other relatively easy to confirm nominees like Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., picked to serve as secretary of state, or Sean Duffy for Transportation secretary, could require roll call votes.
As a result, Democrats can then argue that they voted in favor of "X" number of Mr. Trump’s nominees – and argue they operated in a bipartisan fashion.
Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
