Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) previewed Senate action in anticipation of Pete Hegseth’s confirmation to be defense secretary, in addition to what is ahead this week for the other confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s new administration.
On Monday evening, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 14 Republicans to 13 Democrats, along party lines, to send the Hegseth nomination to the Senate floor.
“The first thing we are going to be doing is voting out of the Senate Committee on Armed Services,” Mullin said ahead of the vote, speaking during special presidential inauguration coverage on Fox News. “And then his clock will start as soon as we’re reporting to the floor, probably on Wednesday.”
The Oklahoma senator is hopeful that Hegseth will be confirmed on Thursday, which would be the soonest date for a full Senate vote. He clarified that the Republicans are working with Senate Democrats to get an agreement.
Mullin said that some of President Donald Trump’s other nominees, former Rep. John Ratcliffe and Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), have “already been vetted” because they have been in Congress.
The senator believed that those nominees could “get voted out today” but Democrats are “not playing ball.”
Mullin is optimistic that they could reach 15 nominees confirmed in 30 days, but that that time frame would likely include nights and weekends, which Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has been telling senators could happen.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted unanimously on Monday in a 22-0 vote to advance former Sen. Marco Rubio‘s secretary of state nomination to the full Senate. The Senate then voted unanimously to confirm him on Monday night.
The Senate Intelligence Committee also voted 14-3 on Monday in favor of Ratcliffe’s nomination to head the CIA. He had previously worked in intelligence in the first Trump administration as the director of national intelligence.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Noem to be homeland security secretary.
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The next round of Trump’s Cabinet picks will face Senate committees this week.
Former Rep. Doug Collins, the nominee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump’s U.N. ambassador nominee, will be testifying on Tuesday, Jan. 21. Office of Management and Budget chief nominee Russ Vought and Department of Transportation nominee Sean Duffy will testify again on Wednesday, Jan. 22. Trump’s agriculture secretary nominee Brooke Robbins and Dan Driscoll, secretary of Army nominee, will wrap the week on Thursday, Jan. 23.
