Critical Analysis

According to the data from the chart above, as of October 21, what percent of Joe Biden’s executive branch nominees have been confirmed by the Senate?
According to the data from the chart above, as of October 21, Describe how the confirmation of Joe Biden’s executive branch nominees compares to Barack Obama at this same time in his presidency in 2009?
About 36% of Biden’s nominees have been confirmed so far in the evenly divided Senate, a deterioration from the paltry 38% success rate that Trump saw at the same stage of his presidency. Their predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, both saw about two-thirds of their nominees confirmed through Oct. 21, according to tracking by the Partnership for Public Service.Why do you think we’ve seen such a decrease in the % of nominees being confirmed over the past 4 presidents?
While gridlock isn’t new, the struggle to staff administrations is getting worse. During the first nine months of the Bush and Obama administrations, the Senate required fewer than 10% of their nominees to advance through time-hogging cloture votes aimed at limiting debate. But Democrats increased that to 40% under Trump. Republicans have responded in kind, ramping it up to more than 50% under Biden, according to White House data.What is one consequence of having only about 1/3 of the people in place to run the government?
Article II, Section ii of the U.S. Constitution lays out the rules of nomination. Describe the process by which the President must have nominees confirmed.
Explain how the nomination process is an example of checks and balances.
A Senate hold is an informal practice by which a senator informs Senate leadership that he or she does not wish a particular measure or nomination to reach the floor for consideration. A hold is how a senator informally signals his objection to a bill or nomination. The holds don’t prevent nominees from being confirmed, but they force extra steps in a Senate that already moves at a leisurely pace. The backup burns through time on the Senate calendar and forces Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to make tough choices about what will see a vote. Recent US Senate holds include:
—Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has placed holds on several State and Treasury nominees over a pipeline that will carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. He wants the Biden administration to implement sanctions to stop it.
—Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., had placed holds on all Department of Homeland Security nominees until Vice President Kamala Harris visited the U.S.-Mexico border.
—Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he will not consent to the nomination of any Defense or State Department nominees until the secretaries of those departments resign for the troubled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In many democratic political systems, such as a parliamentary system, when the chief executive (Prime Minister) is elected and comes to office they control a majority of the legislature and thus are able to immediately name a cabinet and governmental leaders. What would James Madison - Mr. Ambition must be made to counteract ambition - the author of Federalist No. 51 say is dangerous about a system where the chief executive (Prime Minister) has such great power.
Do you think that the practice of a hold where a single senator can block the work of the entire US government is pro or anti- democratic?
“Our system is broken,” said Max Stier, the CEO of the Partnership for Public Service. “We have a Senate that was designed for a different era, the equivalent of the country road and the world around it has become a major urban center and it can’t manage the traffic that is now trying to go down it.” Describe how you would update the nomination system if you were in charge?