The feat is all the more impressive given the fact that Republicans, with a 53-seat majority this year in the upper chamber of Congress, have less of a majority than Democrats did in 2009 at the beginning of Obama’s first term. Democrats actually began Obama’s first term with 60 seats in the U.S. Senate, a filibuster-proof supermajority. That formally faded later when Republican Scott Brown won a shocking special election victory in Massachusetts to break the Democrats’ supermajority. But they started with a filibuster-proof majority in the chamber, something neither party has been that close to since then.
The pace of cabinet confirmations by this GOP Senate is now officially outrunning the beginning of Obama’s term, Trump’s first term in office, and now former President Joe Biden’s term in office. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) celebrated the news in a statement to Breitbart News.
“While Senate Republicans are confirming President Trump’s Cabinet faster than the previous three administrations, the only things Democrats are committed to are obstruction and delay,” Thune said. “We’re working as quickly as possible to get President Trump’s full team in place so we can secure our borders, bolster national security, and unleash American energy.”
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) was also elated.
“Senate Republicans are sprinting to confirm President Trump’s cabinet,” Barrasso told Breitbart News. “We need these highly qualified nominees in place to implement our winning agenda. Today, the Republican-led Senate confirmed the 18th member of President Trump’s cabinet – beating out the number of nominees the Democrat-led Senate confirmed under Presidents Obama and Biden. The American people voted for a bold new direction in Washington. That’s what President Trump and Senate Republicans are delivering.”
As of Wednesday, when former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) was confirmed as Trump’s Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator, the Senate GOP majority has now confirmed 18 cabinet members for Trump in 31 days. In 2009, as of this day in history—February 19—the Democrat supermajority in the Senate had only confirmed 17 cabinet members for Obama. It took that Obama supermajority in the Senate 36 days—so another week nearly—to get to 18, where the Republicans are now with Trump and a slimmer majority.
Also, by comparison, four years ago the Democrat majority in the Senate had only confirmed 7 Biden cabinet members by this time in 2021. It took the Democrat majority a whopping 56 days in 2021 to reach 18 confirmed Biden cabinet nominees.
The 18 officials that the U.S. Senate has already confirmed for Trump in the cabinet or at the cabinet-level are: Loeffler, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.
Only a handful of Trump’s cabinet and cabinet-level picks remain to be confirmed. Education Secretary-designate Linda McMahon, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations-designate Elise Stefanik, U.S. Trade Representative-designate Jamieson Greer, and Labor Secretary-designate Lori Chavez-DeRemer are the only remaining cabinet or cabinet-level picks yet to be confirmed, but the Senate is moving process-wise on each of their nominations now. Kash Patel, Trump’s pick for FBI director, is also in the end stages of his U.S. Senate confirmation process, but FBI director is not considered a cabinet-level position despite its significant importance to national security and law enforcement.
Breitbart News
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