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You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition - March 31, 2017
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This is the March 31, 2017, edition of an email sent from November 2016 to September 2017 that covered Donald Trump's presidential transition, cabinet appointees, and the different policy positions of those individuals who may have had an effect on the new administration. Previous editions of "You're Hired" can be found here.
On the 72nd day of President Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House, we are watching four major storylines that have had an impact on his administration so far:
- The confirmation process for Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch
- Congressional investigations of Russian involvement in the 2016 election and any potential contact between the Trump campaign and Russia
- * The appeals process concerning Trump’s executive orders on immigration and entry into the United States
- The process to fill Trump’s Cabinet
In today’s edition of You’re Hired, we’ll give an update on these storylines, telling you where they stand and what to expect going forward.
Neil Gorsuch confirmation
What’s happened?
Gorsuch was nominated on January 31, 2017, and had his confirmation hearings the week of March 20, 2017. During the four-day hearing, committee members and the nominee read statements into the record, Gorsuch was questioned by members over two days, and a final day was reserved for outside witness statements. You can read our recap of those hearings and what Gorsuch was asked here.
A scheduled vote for the Senate Judiciary Committee was delayed from March 27 to April 3, 2017.
Where do senators stand on his nomination?
According to Ballotpedia’s most recent count of senators who have publicly made statements on the Gorsuch nomination, all 52 Republicans support Gorsuch for confirmation, and they are joined by Democrats Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.). Thirty-four senators, including 33 Democrats and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), intend to vote against Gorsuch. This leaves 12 undecided votes:
- Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
- Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
- Chris Coons (D-Del.)
- Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)
- Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
- Angus King (I-Maine)
- Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
- Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
- Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
- Jon Tester (D-Mont.)
- Mark Warner (D-Va.)
See where senators from all 50 states stand on Gorsuch’s nomination.
What’s next?
On Monday, April 3, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Gorsuch’s nomination. After the vote, which is expected to pass, the nomination will go to the full Senate for consideration.
When the full U.S. Senate votes on Gorsuch’s confirmation, there are a few considerations to keep in mind.
- Senate rules require 60 votes to invoke cloture and end debate on a nomination for the U.S. Supreme Court. If that threshold is not met, Democrats may filibuster the nomination by debating indefinitely.
- This 60 vote threshold could be reduced to a simple majority if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opts to change Senate rules and invoke what has been called the nuclear option. Such a rules change would require a majority of votes in the Senate first.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has already indicated his intent to filibuster the nomination and has publicly encouraged other Democrats to do the same.
- McConnell has stated that there will be a vote on Gorsuch on April 7, the last day the Senate is in session prior to a two-week recess. McConnell has not committed to changing the rules, but he has not ruled that option out either.
Congressional investigations concerning Russia
In addition to an investigation conducted by the FBI, there are two congressional investigations concerning Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election and any potential contact between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
What’s happened in the House?
The House Intelligence Committee heard from FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers on March 20, 2017. During his testimony, Comey remarked that the intelligence community had not reported any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Comey also testified that there was no information to support Trump’s claims that former President Obama had wiretapped Trump’s campaign headquarters.
Things became more difficult to track after that. On March 21, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the committee’s chair, met at the White House to review information related to the investigation; he denied that White House staff were involved in the meeting. The next day, Nunes briefed the president and then held a news conference saying that he had confidential information that the president and his transition team may have been incidentally surveilled by U.S. intelligence; he did not share this information with other members of the committee. On March 24, 2017, Nunes canceled planned testimony from former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
On March 30, officials told The New York Times that Nunes’ sources were White House staffers Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, national security lawyer in the Office of White House Counsel. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member on the committee, questioned Nunes’ conduct, saying, “If the chairman is going to continue to go to the White House rather than his own committee, there’s no way we can conduct this investigation.”
What’s happened in the Senate?
The Senate Intelligence Committee began its investigation in January 2017. They held hearings this week aiming to understand how and why Russia aims to influence elections around the world. Experts in the fields of cybersecurity and Russian intelligence testified, revealing, among other things, that Marco Rubio’s 2016 campaign was one of those targeted early on by Russian hackers. Eugene Rumer, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment, testified, “It is the totality of Russian efforts in plain sight — to mislead, to misinform, to exaggerate — that is more convincing than any cyber evidence. RT, Internet trolls, fake news and so on, are an integral part of Russian foreign policy today.”
What’s next?
The House investigation has effectively stalled. With Nunes and Schiff at an impasse over Nunes’ visit to the White House and the canceling of hearings, there is no activity on the horizon for that particular investigation.
For the Senate committee, private interviews are set to begin next week concerning any potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Some potential considerations:
- Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has indicated to the FBI and both congressional committees that he is willing to testify if he is assured against what he called unfair prosecution. Flynn resigned his position on February 13, 2017, after misleading the White House about contact he had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak during the period of transition.
- Three other former Trump campaign officials are also under investigation by the FBI. Former campaign chair and chief strategist Paul Manafort, former advisor Roger Stone, and former foreign policy advisor Carter Page have all volunteered to speak with the congressional committees without assurances of immunity.
Immigration executive orders
What’s happened?
Trump issued his first executive order on January 27, 2017. It suspended entry to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim countries for 90 days, halted refugee admissions for 120 days, and suspended Syrian refugee admission indefinitely. That order was blocked by Judge James Robart, who issued his temporary restraining order on February 3. Robart’s decision was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on February 9.
The Trump administration issued a second, revised order on March 6, 2017, that rescinded the first. Differences from the January 27 order included removing Iraq from the list of countries subject to the entry suspension, specifying that current visa holders were not affected, removing the indefinite suspension on admitting Syrian refugees, and allowing entry for refugees who had already been granted asylum.
On March 15, 2017, in response to a legal challenge from the state of Hawaii, U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson blocked the implementation of Section 2 and Section 6 of the executive order with a nationwide temporary restraining order. On March 24, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony Trenga in Virginia upheld the order, stating that it was sufficiently different from the January 27 order that it was "no longer likely that Plaintiffs can succeed on their claim that" the order was discriminatory. However, Judge Watson’s block remained in effect.
What’s next?
On March 29, 2017, Watson converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, extending the block on implementing these portions of the executive order. Yesterday, the Trump administration appealed Watson’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case will be heard. The administration is appealing a number of other rulings on the executive order, including a Maryland court’s block of the six-country visa ban, and an information-gathering process in Seattle, where six states are challenging the order.
Cabinet confirmation updates
As of today, Trump had 13 of his 15 nominees for Cabinet positions confirmed by the Senate. The two remaining nominees are set for full Senate votes.
Sonny Perdue
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry advanced the nomination of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) as Secretary of Agriculture to the full Senate for a vote. The committee voted 19-1 to advance Perdue's nomination. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) was the sole vote against Perdue's nomination. Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), Sonny Perdue's cousin, abstained from voting.
The committee originally received Perdue’s nomination papers on March 10; his hearing was on March 23.
Alexander Acosta
Also yesterday, Alexander Acosta, Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor, was approved by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in a 12-11 vote along party lines. A final confirmation vote in the Senate has not been scheduled. Acosta was nominated on February 16 after Trump's first pick for the position, Andrew Puzder, withdrew from consideration. Acosta’s hearing was on March 22.
See also
- You're Hired: Tracking the Trump Administration Transition
- Donald Trump presidential transition team
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