13 Trump Appointees Face Confirmation Hearings This Week

Contents

Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Protection Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Inside Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Safety Pamela Bondi, Legal professional Basic John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Company Chris Wright, Secretary of Power Russ Vought, Director of the Workplace of Administration and Funds Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury Lee Zeldin, Administrator of the Environmental Safety Company Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and City Improvement

The back-to-back hearings are prone to show the primary main check of Trump’s second time period in workplace as Republicans grapple with a slim majority within the Senate.

Greater than a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cupboard nominees will face affirmation hearings within the Senate subsequent week.

The back-to-back Senate hearings are prone to show the primary main check of Trump’s second time period in workplace, as a number of the president-elect’s choices have stoked controversy on each side of the aisle in current months.

The Republican Celebration presently maintains a slim majority within the Senate of 53 to 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with Democrats. As such, the flexibility of the Republican majority to push by way of Trump’s nominees will present a key learn of simply how far his affect on the get together extends.

A failure to safe nominations for some key positions, corresponding to secretary of protection, might likewise hamstring the primary weeks of Trump’s second time period in workplace by limiting the president-elect’s capability to hold out sweeping institutional modifications in authorities.

The 13 Trump administration appointees going through affirmation hearings within the coming week embody:

Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Protection

Hegseth will face the Senate Armed Companies Committee on Jan. 14. A former officer within the Minnesota Military Nationwide Guard, Hegseth served on deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, incomes the Bronze Star on two events earlier than shifting on to turn into a co-host with varied Fox tv packages.

Hegseth has been on the middle of a number of controversies in current months, together with for his reported position in a veteran’s charity group that went bankrupt, an alleged historical past of alcohol abuse, and a sexual assault settlement with an unidentified lady in California, which Hegseth didn’t speak in confidence to the Trump transition workforce earlier than accepting the nomination.

Hegseth has stated that, ought to he be confirmed to go the Pentagon, he’ll take away officers who championed variety initiatives and can search to finish ladies’s capability to serve in fight roles.

Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Inside

Burgum will face the Senate Power and Pure Assets Committee on Jan. 14. Burgum served as governor of North Dakota from 2016 to 2024. Previous to his political profession, Burgum served in a administration place at Nice Plains Software program, staying on for a number of years as a vp after the corporate offered to Microsoft, earlier than co-founding a enterprise capital agency.

Trump has stated that Burgum will chair a brand new Nationwide Power Council, which can include all authorities entities concerned within the allowing, manufacturing, era, distribution, regulation, and transportation of all types of American vitality. As chair of the brand new council, Burgum would even have a seat on the White Home Nationwide Safety Council.

Doug Collins, Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Collins will face the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Jan. 14. He beforehand represented Georgia as a Republican within the Home from 2013 to 2021. Previous to that, he served as a chaplain within the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Pressure Reserve and was deployed to Iraq in that capability.

He sat on the Home Judiciary Committee and served as vice chair of the Home Republican Convention.

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State

Rubio will face the Senate International Relations Committee on Jan. 15. A senator for Florida since 2011, Rubio has made a reputation for himself for his robust stance on China and different communist nations.

Rubio has served because the vice rating member of the Choose Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Committee on International Relations, the place he has sought bipartisan assist for countering the Chinese language regime as a prime precedence.

Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Safety

Noem will face the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 15. As governor of South Dakota, Noem deployed Nationwide Guard troops from her state to help with Texas’s Operation Lone Star effort to discourage unlawful immigrants on the southern border.

Trump has stated that Noem will work intently with incoming border czar Tom Homan to guard People from threats associated to unlawful immigration and smuggling.

Pamela Bondi, Legal professional Basic

Bondi will face the Senate Judiciary Committee in two separate hearings on Jan. 15 and Jan. 16. As Florida’s lawyer basic from 2011 to 2019, Bondi centered on countering drug trafficking and decreasing overdose deaths as a consequence of fentanyl and different opioids.

Bondi additionally served on Trump’s authorized workforce throughout his first impeachment trial in 2019, and has been a vocal critic of the felony instances towards the president-elect.

John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Company

Ratcliffe will face each open and closed hearings of the Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence on Jan. 15. An lawyer by commerce, Ratcliffe beforehand represented Texas within the Home from 2015 to 2020 and was director of nationwide intelligence through the first Trump administration.

A former member of the Home Intelligence Committee and the Home Judiciary Committee, Ratcliffe was among the many lawmakers questioning the foundations of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation towards the Trump marketing campaign in the summertime of 2016.

Chris Wright, Secretary of Power

Wright will face the Senate Power and Pure Assets Committee on Jan. 15. The founder and CEO of Liberty Power, Wright has spent his profession specializing in fossil gas extraction, and fracking particularly.

Wright has characterised the shift to renewable vitality sources as a politically-driven “mis-investment” and is anticipated to assist push by way of Trump’s aim to extend American oil drilling.

As secretary of vitality, Wright would additionally oversee a number of nationwide security-oriented establishments, together with the Los Alamos Laboratory and the nation’s nuclear stockpiles.

Russ Vought, Director of the Workplace of Administration and Funds

Vought will face the Senate Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs Committee on Jan. 15. Vought led the Workplace of Administration and Funds throughout Trump’s first time period as president.

Through the first Trump administration, Vought developed the Schedule F plan, which might enable the president to designate huge swathes of presidency employees as political appointees, and thereby grant the president authority to fireplace them. The plan was not applied and was repealed by President Joe Biden.

Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation

Duffy will face the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Jan. 15. He beforehand represented Wisconsin within the Home from 2011 to 2019, earlier than shifting on to a co-host position with Fox Enterprise.

Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury

Bessent will face the Senate Finance Committee on Jan. 16. A Wall Avenue veteran and founding father of worldwide funding agency Key Sq. Group, he served as an financial adviser to Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign.

Bessent and Trump have prompt that his priorities as Treasury secretary will embody sustaining the U.S. greenback’s place as the worldwide reserve foreign money and invigorating development within the non-public sector by extending the tax cuts of Trump’s first administration.

Bessent has additionally championed cryptocurrency as a way of getting youth engaged available in the market, and has prompt that Trump’s many proposed tariffs may very well be applied regularly to forestall a sudden spike in inflation.

Lee Zeldin, Administrator of the Environmental Safety Company

Zeldin will face the Senate Surroundings and Public Works on Jan. 16. He represented New York within the Home from 2015 to 2023 and ran for governor of New York in 2022. Zeldin served on the Home International Affairs and Monetary Companies Committees. Previous to that, he served within the New York state Senate.

Zeldin additionally served within the U.S. Military from 2003 to 2007 as an intelligence officer and navy lawyer for the Choose Advocate Basic Corps. He continues to serve within the Military Reserve.

Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and City Improvement

Turner will face the Senate Banking, Housing, and City Affairs Committee on Jan. 16. Turner served in Trump’s first administration as the chief director of the White Home Alternative and Revitalization Council.

Previous to his appointments, Turner served within the Texas Home of Representatives and was an expert athlete taking part in American soccer for the Washington Redskins, San Diego Chargers, and Denver Broncos.

He’s additionally the founder and CEO of the Neighborhood Engagement & Alternative Council, a household basis devoted to revitalizing communities throughout the nation by way of sports activities, mentorship, and financial alternatives.