As Senate committees prepare to launch confirmation hearings, President-elect Trump hasn’t yet named his picks to lead financial regulatory agencies.
As AXIOS reported this morning, President-elect Donald Trump will invite every U.S. senator from the Republican party to Mar-a-Lago for a “mega MAGA” party later this month. The incoming commander-in-chief also will meet with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill this evening to discuss an outline for the yet-to-be-introduced budget reconciliation package expected to include many of his campaign policy platforms.
“Trump is keen to celebrate a victory he sees as historic and fete the senators who helped him achieve it,” AXIOS said about the party. “He also wants to build trust with the lawmakers he needs to pass his sweeping legislative agenda.”
Of course, in addition to selling his legislative agenda at these two events, we assume the president-elect will also try to build support for his executive branch nominees, some of whom are still on very shaky ground with certain U.S. senators.
Let’s take a look at the status of those nominations, when individuals are likely to be confirmed, and the posts for which the president-elect still has not named nominees.
Vetting Process For Some Nominees Is Moving Slowly
As AXIOS also reported this morning, “The delays are piling up for some of Trump’s top nominees.” The delay has occurred in part because President-elect Trump took additional time to sign an agreement with the FBI to run background checks on nominees. (As readers may recall, the Trump team initially wanted private investigators, as opposed to the FBI, to complete these checks.)
Under U.S. Senate rules, committees cannot even schedule a confirmation hearing until a week after the background checks have been received from the FBI. As expected, Senate Democrats are holding fast to this rule. AXIOS noted Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is refusing to sign off on expediting a hearing for Tulsi Gabbard, the president-elect’s nominee for director of national intelligence, until receiving her background check. (Senators, including some Republicans, have voiced concerns about Gabbard’s potential ties to the Russian government.)
The Senate Judiciary hearing for President-elect Trump’s nominee for attorney general (AG) also has been pushed back because the FBI check is not complete. Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had planned the hearing for Pam Bondi for January 14, but that meeting most likely will have to be postponed. Bondi is, of course, the president-elect’s second choice for AG. His original nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, dropped out of the running last month.
Still, Chairman Grassley told Politico his Judiciary Committee nominees, which also include the nominees for deputy attorney general and, ironically, the FBI director, could still get confirmation hearings before Inauguration Day.
Some Nominees Will Get Quick Confirmation
While Punchbowl News has said “very few” Trump nominees “will be ready for Senate floor action on Inauguration Day” and “even fewer will actually get confirmed on the afternoon of January 20,” the news is not all bad for the Trump cabinet. In fact, according to Politico, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is in discussions with Democrats to determine which nominees may have enough support for confirmation on January 20. Politico said that list is likely to include Secretary of State nominee Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the president-elect’s pick to be United Nations ambassador.
The Committee on Foreign Relations is expected to hold Sen. Rubio’s nomination hearing on January 15 and Rep. Stefanik’s on Jan. 16.
In order to be confirmed on day one of the Trump administration, a nominee must have the support of all 100 senators. That threshold is perhaps one that only current lawmakers like Sen. Rubio and Rep. Stefanik can clear, so even if hearings are held for other nominees, the full chamber may not approve their nominations on Inauguration Day. Nominees who do not have unanimous support would need to go through regular order, a process that can last several days or even weeks and months.
Getting confirmation hearings on the schedule as quickly as possible is a goal that extends across the Senate GOP conference, Politico explained. “We’re going to do over a dozen hearings next week,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said, in the hopes to “get as many lined up to go on day one as we possibly can.”
In fact, several nominees are slated to go before their committees of jurisdiction next week. These individuals include:
- North Dakota Gov. Doug Bargum, who has been nominated to serve as secretary of the Interior, will have a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on January 14.
- On January 14, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee also is expected to hold a confirmation hearing for Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of Energy.
- The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is expected to hold a hearing next week for former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), President-elect Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
- On January 15, the Senate Commerce Committee is expected to hold a confirmation hearing for former Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) to be secretary of Transportation.
- The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Department of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth on January 14.
It is unclear when Robert Kennedy, Jr., President-elect Trump’s controversial choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services, will get a hearing, but he is meeting with key senators on the panel, including Democrats, this week.
What About Financial Services And Technology-Related Nominees?
Readers will notice a huge gap in the list of nominees mentioned above: anyone related to the oversight of financial services. The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is set to hold a confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent on January 16, but senators have not said when they will hold a confirmation hearing for Paul Atkins’ nomination for chairman to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The fault for this gap does not lay with Senate leaders, however.
President-elect Trump has named 91 nominees so far, but with the exception of Atkins and Bessent, he has still yet to name his picks to head financial regulatory agencies. The Trump transition team had hoped to make announcements for at least some of these agencies before the end of 2024, but that timeline obviously has slipped. As a result, observers are still waiting for word on who will lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This list also expanded this week after Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Michael Barr announced his plan to resign next month, giving President-elect Trump another senior financial regulatory position to fill.
In the meantime, what are the prospects for the two financial services and fintech-related nominees President-elect Trump has named?
While these men have broad support among GOP lawmakers, as Politico noted this morning, Democrats largely have been silent regarding how they feel. (Others have already voiced opposition to Bessent leading the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Paul Atkins, President-elect Trump’s choice for Securities and Exchange Commission chair.) Politico suggested keeping an eye on “Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand … who is friendly with the cryptocurrency industry” and moderate lawmakers like Sen. Warner, who could support Bessent. Otherwise, it is unclear whether President-elect Trump’s choices to head financial regulatory agencies will find any support among the minority party.
At this point, financial regulatory agencies could go months without Senate-confirmed leaders. As we have noted before, the time it takes from nomination to confirmation has lengthened considerably over the last quarter century. In 2001, it took President George W. Bush an average of 48 days to get his nominees through the Senate. By 2009, that number was up to 80 days for President Barack Obama and it grew again in 2017, hitting 100 days during the Trump administration. In 2021, Biden nominees took an average of 103 days to be confirmed.
That number is just an average, of course. It took some nominees far longer to gain Senate approval. In fact, in 2021, it took CFPB Director Rohit Chopra eight months to be confirmed by the Senate. Then-President-elect Biden announced Chopra’s nomination on January 18, 2021, but Chopra was not confirmed until September 30 of that year.
In the event leadership positions at the financial regulatory agencies are not filled, acting heads fill the void — and there is precedent for this outcome. The OCC has not had a Senate-confirmed leader since May 2020. Martin Gruenberg became acting chair of the FDIC in February 2022 after Jelena McWilliams resigned after four years at the helm. David Uejio was acting director of the CFPB until Chopra took the lead.
The wait continues.