U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s proposed Cabinet of top advisers seems headed toward a head-on battle with Senate Democrats, with Dems hoping to give the nominees the a Merrick Garland-esque run-around before any chance of confirmation.
Nevertheless, following a long-held tradition in the treatment of incoming presidents, Trump’s fellow Republicans have made Senate confirmation of his Cabinet a top priority. They have already begun to schedule confirmation hearings, in hopes of having the nominees officially confirmed within hours of the president-elect’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Scheduled first for a confirmation hearing is Alabama’s own U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, who was tapped Nov. 18 to be Trump’s Attorney General. The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmed on Friday that they have scheduled Sessions’ confirmation hearings for Jan. 10 and 11.
“Since President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s nomination of Herbert Brownell to be the 62nd Attorney General in 1953, hearings on a newly-elected president’s Attorney General nominee have been held prior to inauguration,” the Judiciary Committee posted Friday on its official website.
“The only exception occurred when President George H.W. Bush retained Dick Thornburgh as Attorney General after he had been confirmed only five months prior under President Ronald Reagan.”
According to the Committee, Sessions’s confirmation process will follow the “same timeline as the nomination of Attorney General Eric Holder” under President Barack Obama.
More January confirmation hearings are planned to be scheduled in the coming days, ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
