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Trump has 13 Cabinet nominees up for confirmation hearings this week

What Hill leaders are focused on — and what they’re trying to accomplish

Tech group wants Congress to look at axing chips rule

What we’re watching — besides confirmation hearings

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Trump has 13 Cabinet nominees up for confirmation hearings this week

Happy Monday morning.

President-elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated in one week. The inaugural platform on the West Side of the Capitol is being finished, security fences are going up everywhere and marching bands were practicing Sunday on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Inside the Capitol, there are two things worth watching over the next few days — the blitz of Senate confirmation hearings kicking off on Tuesday for Trump’s Cabinet nominees, as well as the debate over the Laken Riley Act. We cover the latter issue in the next item, so let’s talk about Trump’s nominees.

Thirteen Cabinet nominees will appear before 11 different Senate committees this week. See the schedule below. It all kicks into another gear starting Tuesday. The majority of these will have a relatively smooth confirmation process. Some of Trump’s more controversial nominees haven’t had their hearings scheduled yet.

Must-see TV: The main event will be Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning. Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has faced allegations of sexual and financial misconduct, as well as doubt over his qualifications for the role.

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.) — the chair and ranking member, respectively — are the only committee members who have viewed Hegseth’s FBI file, which was delivered to the panel late last week. Republicans on SASC who have been briefed say that the report is unremarkable. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) told reporters on Friday that she doesn’t expect other senators will be permitted to read it before the hearing.

Senate Republicans want Trump’s national security nominees to be confirmed on day one — or close to it — but Democrats are determined to expose what they see as an unfit nominee in Hegseth. It’s virtually guaranteed that Democrats won’t agree to fast-track Hegseth’s nomination on the floor, even if it’s clear he’d have the requisite votes to be confirmed.

Another nominee whose hearing could get testy is Pam Bondi, Trump’s pick for attorney general. Bondi will sit before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and Thursday. Bondi will face questions about her independence from Trump given her previous representation of the incoming president during his first impeachment trial.

Day One: As we’ve reported, Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) nomination to serve as secretary of state is the most likely to be approved on Inauguration Day. Rubio’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, and we expect that he’ll be confirmed easily.

After Rubio, though, it’s unclear who could come next. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee for CIA director, has his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Ratcliffe has been confirmed by the Senate before, as director of national intelligence. He could also be a candidate for early confirmation.

All it takes is one Democrat to refuse to consent to fast-tracking any of these nominees, meaning Senate Majority Leader John Thune would have to burn a few days of floor time to confirm each one.

Remember that Thune has also promised to grind through these nominees if Democrats throw up roadblocks, even if that means keeping the Senate in session on Fridays.

Four years ago, the Senate confirmed Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Inauguration Day. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was confirmed two days later, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed a few days after Austin.

Looking ahead: In addition to Hegseth, two other national security nominees could face a difficult path to Senate confirmation.

One of them, former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), nominated for the DNI post, could have her Senate confirmation hearing as soon as next week. Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, likely won’t have his confirmation hearing until February.

Gabbard is scheduled to have around 20 meetings with senators this week, we’re told, including with Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Gabbard picked up support on Sunday from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a committee member who suggested last week that Gabbard’s views on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were problematic.

As we scooped on Friday, Gabbard reversed course on the key intelligence-gathering authority. Republican senators who met with her in recent weeks told us that her position on Section 702 — including her 2020 proposal to repeal it and her consistent votes against reauthorizing the program — was emerging as a major problem for her confirmation prospects.

Biden finale: President Joe Biden will give his farewell address from the Oval Office on Wednesday at 8 p.m.

— Andrew Desiderio and John Bresnahan

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LEADER LOOK

What Hill leaders are focused on — and what they’re trying to accomplish

Speaker Mike Johnson. There is a common thread running through the set of decisions Johnson must make this week. Whatever he does, Johnson will anger one portion of the House Republican Conference or another.

Let’s talk about committees. Johnson has yet to name a chair of the House Rules Committee or the House Intelligence Committee. He also hasn’t filled any of the slots on either committee.

We don’t expect Johnson to oust House Intelligence Chair Committee Mike Turner (R-Ohio), although the speaker has been noncommittal on it publicly. We’ll note that Turner attended a meeting this past weekend in Mar-a-Lago for House committee chairs with President-elect Donald Trump.

Johnson has a tough choice for Rules Committee chair between Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), a hard-nosed disciplinarian, and Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), a third-term former lieutenant governor. House Republicans don’t have a woman full-committee chair.

Furthermore, Johnson has to set the committee roster for Rules, one of his biggest decisions in the early part of this Congress. Will he keep the troublesome trio of GOP Reps. Chip Roy (Texas), Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Thomas Massie (Ky.)? Chatter inside the House GOP leadership circles seems to be pointing to Johnson canning Massie and keeping the other two. Massie also recently told us he doesn’t care about serving on Rules anymore. But Johnson is keeping his own counsel on this — just like he does on most things.

On reconciliation, Johnson will welcome back a massive gaggle of House Republicans who spent the weekend hanging with Trump. The president-elect, accompanied by Elon Musk, wined and dined members — and even sent them home with signed hats and books — in the hopes of inspiring unity.

Whether the charm offensive works remains to be seen. House Freedom Caucus members made clear to Trump they favor a two-step approach to reconciliation, according to a source in the room, even as Johnson advocates for a single massive package. And while SALT Republicans floated potential fixes during their meeting, Trump tasked the crew with settling on a number that the rest of the House GOP conference could live with. The president-elect reiterated his support for raising the cap as high as possible.

The challenge for Johnson is multifaceted. Johnson has been sending mixed signals on reconciliation, saying he prefers the one-bill solution but understands why the two-bill play is appealing to some. We get why he’s doing this. There are those House Republicans who think the two-bill play is the best move, as does the Senate GOP leadership. But this leaves rank-and-file House Republicans wondering what the leadership is doing.

Remember: Johnson and his leadership want the budget resolution on the floor by the middle of February. They need to get moving — and now.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Senate Republicans’ new leader came into the job wanting to score some early legislative wins. This is at least partly what fueled his desire for a two-step process on budget reconciliation — pass a border security-focused bill within Trump’s first 100 days, then pivot to tax cuts.

Thune hasn’t been able to sell Trump on the latter. And as we reported, Thune had a back-and-forth with Trump on this during Senate Republicans’ closed-door meeting with the president-elect last week. The two-step idea could still be the end result here if Republicans struggle with one megabill.

But Thune is still on track to secure at least one legislative victory in the opening days of his tenure as Senate GOP leader.

Last week, all Republicans and nearly every Democrat voted to open up debate on the Laken Riley Act, a bill that would make it easier for law enforcement to detain undocumented immigrants accused of crimes. Passing the bill in its current form isn’t a sure thing, but Thune has forced Democrats to the table on an issue that dominated the GOP’s 2024 election messaging.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrats want to amend the bill, but Republicans don’t want this to turn into a massive immigration bill. Thune will try to avoid this and move straight to final passage with 60 votes, meaning Democratic votes will be needed. A handful of Democratic senators back the bill in its current form.

The next procedural vote is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. today.

One quick note: Republicans currently have a 51-47 majority. Sen.-elect Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) will be sworn in as early as today, and Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to reveal his appointment to Vice President-elect JD Vance’s seat. Vance resigned from the Senate late last week. We’re told that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted will get the nod if he wants it.

— Jake Sherman, Melanie Zanona and Andrew Desiderio

Tech group wants Congress to look at axing chips rule

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The Information Technology Industry Council, a top tech trade group, is urging lawmakers to consider using their power to nix last-minute regulations on an expected rule that would further limit the export of advanced microchips.

A letter from ITI, which was shared exclusively with Punchbowl News, is a pitch to both lawmakers and President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to heed industry concerns when pushing back on China.

ITI counts chip companies as its members along with Big Tech platforms, device-makers, software giants and financial firms. ITI’s missive said Trump should rescind the rule. If not, lawmakers should consider using the Congressional Review Act to rescind the measure “to protect U.S. global leadership on AI.”

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has said he’s considering using CRA. Other Republicans, however, love how hard the expected regulation hits China. The concerns of industry and China hawks are expected to clash in the upcoming Trump administration.

The tech group has been helping lead the opposition against the Commerce Department’s expected “diffusion” rule, which ITI says would “place global restrictions on countries’ access to integrated circuits, regardless of cluster size or use case.”

Alongside firms, including Nvidia and Oracle, ITI has said the rule is too broad, would have a whopping financial impact on companies and was written with little to no input from businesses.

“A rule of this nature would cede the global market to U.S. competitors who will be eager to fill the untapped demand created by placing arbitrary constraints on U.S. companies’ ability to sell basic computing systems overseas,” ITI said in the letter. It was addressed to congressional leaders, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson.

— Ben Brody

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What we’re watching — besides confirmation hearings

Tuesday: The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on making the Trump tax cuts permanent. The House Oversight Committee will have its organizational hearing.

Wednesday: House Oversight will have a hearing on the “stay-at-home federal workforce.” Witnesses include Martin O’Malley, Tom Davis and Rachel Greszler of the Policy Innovation Center.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing on the state of the nation’s transportation system.

Thursday: The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

— Jake Sherman

… AND THERE’S MORE

The Campaign. Speaker Mike Johnson has officially formed his updated joint fundraising committee, “Grow the Majority,” for the 2026 cycle. This will serve as Johnson’s primary fundraising vehicle to raise resources for House Republicans and will initially consist of more than 70 Republican entities, with a maximum contribution exceeding $1 million.

The beneficiaries include incumbents, funds for emerging challengers to incumbent Democrats, state parties, NRCC, CLF, RNC, Johnson’s re-election account and his leadership PAC.

“The Republican Party attracted a new coalition of voters in this past election, fed up with the status quo and ready to put America first,” Johnson said in a statement shared first with Punchbowl News. “By staying on offense and holding Democrats accountable, we will be ready to win in every battleground across America.”

Downtown Download. UnitedHealth Group has named Brian Walsh as its new senior vice president for public affairs.

Walsh is a longtime GOP communicator. He spent 15 years on Capitol Hill, including a stint as senior adviser to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). Walsh is moving over from PLUS Communications, where he was a partner specializing in public affairs campaigns and strategic communications.

Lobbying lineup. Ballard Group, the lobbying shop with close ties to the Trump administration, has another three new clients. It has signed up 29 new clients since Election Day.

In this round, Ballard has signed up the ​California Avocado Commission, ​Ilya Alekseevich Golubovich and the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Crossroads Strategies has signed up Block Inc., to lobby on “[i]ssues related to artificial intelligence and digital assets, including bitcoin. Issues related to financial services, merchant services, and mobile payments.”

The Tiber Creek Group has signed up Columbia University.

— Jake Sherman and Melanie Zanona

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