Confirmation Rate For President Biden's Political Appointees
Critical Analysis
According to the data from the chart above, through the second year of the president’s term, what was the average number of days for President Biden’s political appointees to be confirmed by the Senate?
According to the data from the chart above, through the second year of the president’s term, what was the average number of days for President Bush’s political appointees to be confirmed by the Senate?
According to the data from the chart above, describe how the length of time of Senate confirmation of presidential political nominees has changed.
It's taking longer for presidents to get their political appointees confirmed by the Senate, according to a report by the Center for Presidential Transition. Why do you think that is?
According to ,what is one consequence of the lengthy confirmation process.
According to the visual below*, not only do confirmations take longer, recent presidents have had a lower percent of their confirmations approved by the Senate. For example the success rate for the following presidents has been; Bush: 87%; Obama: 85%; Trump: 61%, and Biden: 78% Why do you think we’ve seen such a decrease in the % of nominees being confirmed over the past 4 presidents? What is one political consequence of the increasing lengthy and increasingly unsuccessful confirmation process?
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.
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, had 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., had said he would 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.
—Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has threatened to block Biden's nominees until the Senate Intelligence Committee receives the classified documents found at both President Biden and former President Trump's residences.
In general, do you think a single Senator should have enough power to thwart the will of the president, the only democratically elected official representing all the people.
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.
“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?
Learning Extension
Read the AP article about the use of holds in the Senate confirmation process and follow the Biden Political Appointee Tracker.
Action Extension
Contact your U.S. Senators and let them know what you think about the use of holds.