The Senate is poised to confirm two more of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees today before leaving for a four-day weekend. Here’s where things stand:
The Senate will vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services at 10:30 a.m. This vote, originally scheduled for 7 a.m., got pushed back several hours thanks to a time agreement reached on Wednesday night.
We expect Kennedy to be confirmed. In a 53-47 party-line vote, the Senate invoked cloture on Kennedy’s nomination on Wednesday.
Plus, key GOP swing votes — Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan Collins (Maine), John Curtis (Utah) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — have announced they’ll back Kennedy. One Republican to watch is Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who has voted against Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard. McConnell is a childhood survivor of polio.
After the Kennedy confirmation vote, the Senate will vote to confirm Brooke Rollins to be agriculture secretary. Rollins advanced out of committee by a unanimous 23-0 vote earlier this month.
Later Thursday afternoon, there will be two cloture votes on Howard Lutnick’s nomination to lead the Commerce Department and SBA nominee Kelly Loeffler. If cloture is invoked, these two nominations will be taken up by the Senate when they return on Tuesday.
Also in the pipeline: Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director, will have his Senate Judiciary Committee vote today. USTR nominee Jamieson Greer was voted out of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
