When the Senate convenes on Monday, Republicans will resume their work to confirm President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. If things go as hoped for Trump and Senate Republicans, they’ll confirm five of these nominees by this time next week — with the potential for a sixth.
The high-profile nomination of one of Trump’s most controversial picks — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of health and human services — will be taken up by the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday morning, the panel’s chair, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), announced on Sunday.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) spoke with Kennedy over the weekend, we’re told. Cassidy delivered a dressing down of Kennedy’s vaccine beliefs on Thursday and said he was struggling with Kennedy’s nomination.
Cassidy’s support is critical. Republicans have a 14-13 margin on the Finance Committee. If Cassidy were to vote no, it would all but doom Kennedy’s chances for confirmation.
Following questions from Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), RFK amended his ethics filings.
The other cliffhanger is former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii) for director of national intelligence. Vice President JD Vance lobbied Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and other Intelligence Committee Republicans to back Gabbard over the weekend.
At one point, Trump ally Elon Musk posted that Young was “a deep state puppet.” Musk quickly deleted the post after speaking to Young. Musk later declared the Indiana Republican “a great ally in restoring power to the people from the vast, unelected bureaucracy.”
Top Senate Republicans privately believe Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the other swing vote on the Intel Committee, could support Gabbard, although Collins hasn’t said what she’ll do.
Now back to the Senate floor schedule.
After a vote tonight on a motion to proceed to executive session on OMB nominee Russell Vought’s nomination, the Senate will vote to confirm Chris Wright as energy secretary. Wright received 62 votes during an earlier procedural vote last week, so his confirmation isn’t in doubt.
After Wright is likely confirmed, senators will vote to invoke cloture on Pam Bondi’s nomination to be attorney general. If Democrats don’t yield back any of the 30 hours in post-cloture time, the vote to confirm Bondi would come very early Wednesday morning.
Next up — former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) to be secretary of veterans affairs. Collins, a former House member from Georgia, got 83 votes for cloture, so he’ll be confirmed easily.
Up next would be a cloture vote on HUD secretary nominee Scott Turner. If Turner is confirmed 30 hours later, then it would be time for Vought to be considered.
That would put Vought’s cloture vote at roughly 9 a.m. Thursday ahead of a potential 3 p.m. Friday confirmation vote.
RFK could be up after that, but any floor action on him could slide until next week.