The Donald Trump Cabinet Tracker
Updated on February 10, 2017 at 8:45 a.m. ET
President Trump finally has his health secretary, giving the GOP’s slow-moving push to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act an important boost.
In a party-line vote early Friday morning, the Senate confirmed Representative Tom Price of Georgia to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. There were no defections from either side, reflecting the highly partisan debate over a staunch conservative who has authored Republican proposals to eliminate Obamacare and backed efforts to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid.
As HHS secretary, Price will now have the power either to stabilize the ACA insurance exchanges in the short term, buying time for legislative efforts to replace the law, or to take administrative steps to loosen enforcement of the program that could hasten its demise.
An orthopedist who served six terms in the House, Price faced criticism for investing in a medical-device company just days before introducing legislation that would have benefited the firm. Democrats then accused him of lying to a Senate committee over whether he got a privileged offer to buy stock in a different biomedical company at a discount. Price denied that he had acted improperly, but the dispute led Democrats to boycott a committee vote on his confirmation.
Republicans stood by the congressman, as they have for each of Trump’s Cabinet nominees so far. They changed the committee rules to advance Price’s nomination in the Democrats’ absence, and they held a final floor vote on his confirmation in the wee hours on Friday after Democrats insisted on using all of the debate time available.
The process has fit a pattern in the early weeks of the Trump administration: Democrats have been able to drag out the confirmation of the new president’s more contentious Cabinet picks to a historically slow pace, but they have been unable to block any of them. Republicans will next move to confirm Steve Mnuchin as treasury secretary early next week, in what is expected to be another party-line vote.
Republicans hope to approve another handful of Trump nominees before the Senate goes on a President’s Day recess, but that will depend on Democratic cooperation. At least one pick is expected to advance rather easily: David Shulkin, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Though his was one of the final nominations announced, Shulkin is already a senior official in the department in the Obama administration and has encountered little opposition from Democrats. Bigger floor fights are expected for Trump’s nominees for budget director, Mick Mulvaney, and EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt.
Trump has begun his presidency with the most skeletal administration in nearly three decades. The Senate confirmed seven of President George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s nominees on their first day in office in 2001 and 2009, respectively. President Bill Clinton won approval of three nominees on January 20, 1993. The Trump transition got off to a slow start vetting its nominees after the election, and Democrats are demanding more scrutiny and debate for most of his picks.
Several of the wealthier nomineesof their nominees confirmed in the last 30 years; those that become enmeshed in controversy or partisan brinkmanship (it’s often both) usually withdraw before a vote.
