Senate confirming Trump nominees faster than in his first term, but slower than GOP's goal

President Trump already has twice the number of Cabinet secretaries confirmed than he did at this point in his first term, but Senate Republicans are poised to fall short of their goal of meeting the confirmation pace set under President Obama.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, has spoken frequently of returning to the “Obama standard,” in which Mr. Obama had 12 of 15 Cabinet secretaries in place within 15 days of taking office in 2009. The Senate confirmed 11 of those Cabinet members, and the other was a holdover from the Bush administration.

The pace of confirmations slowed significantly in the following two administrations, with only four Cabinet secretaries confirmed in the first 15 days of Mr. Trump’s first term, and five confirmed in the same period under President Biden.

The Senate has confirmed six of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet secretaries and is poised to confirm one more by the end of the president’s 15th day in office, on Monday.

That would bring Mr. Trump’s total to seven, five short of the Obama standard, when counting only Cabinet secretaries for an apples-to-apples comparison, based on the metric Mr. Thune cited and the historical data that the Senate keeps.

But the Senate has also confirmed two other Cabinet-level nominees, which means Mr. Trump will have nine total nominees confirmed by the end of the day Monday.

The pace is set by Senate rules and whether all 100 senators will cooperate to speed things up. Absent unanimous consent for a time agreement, regular order requires the Senate leader, in this case Mr. Thune, to file cloture on a nomination to overcome a filibuster, an intervening day before a cloture vote and then 30 hours of post-cloture debate time on Cabinet secretaries before a final confirmation vote.

Nominees for positions outside of the 15 Cabinet secretaries require only two hours of post-cloture debate time, so they can advance a little faster.

Typically it’s the party in the minority, in this case Democrats, that chooses to drag the process out.

With a few exceptions, like the Inauguration Day agreement to confirm Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Democrats have required Republicans to run out the full clock.

“We want fast confirmations, and the Democrats as you know are doing everything they can to delay them,” President Trump said at a press conference Thursday. “They’ve taken too long. We’re struggling to get very good people that everybody knows are going to be confirmed. … We want them out faster.”

In addition to Mr. Rubio, the Senate has confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to the Cabinet, plus CIA Director John Ratcliffe and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to Cabinet-level roles.

The Senate Republican Conference released a graphic on Friday showing that the confirmation of those eight Trump Cabinet-level nominees is double the four confirmed by the end of January in the Biden administration, and more than the five confirmed during the same period of Mr. Trump’s first term. (Those figures include Cabinet-level positions outside of the 15 secretary positions the Senate’s historical data tracks.)

“As the procedural clock runs on additional nominees, there are many more in the confirmation pipeline,” Mr. Thune said in an X post sharing the graphic.

Mr. Thune has said he would make the Senate work nights and weekends if needed to get Mr. Trump’s nominees through. The Senate did work the first weekend after Mr. Trump was sworn in to confirm his national security nominees, but did not schedule any nomination votes for the following weekend.

On Monday, the Senate is set to hold a final confirmation vote on Energy Secretary nominee Christopher Wright. He cleared the procedural cloture vote Thursday, 62-35.

Veterans Affairs Secretary nominee Doug Collins also cleared a Thursday cloture vote, 83-13, and is poised to be confirmed next week, but a final vote is not yet scheduled.

A cloture vote on Attorney General Pam Bondi’s nomination is scheduled for Monday evening, which if successful would lead to a final vote later in the week.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary nominee Eric Turner is next in the pipeline after that.

None of those nominees are expected to face any issues getting confirmed, but two other Trump picks are in danger of not advancing out of committee.

Health and Human Services Secretary nominee John F. Kennedy Jr. needs to win over Sen. Bill Cassidy, Louisiana Republican, if he wants his nomination to make it out of the Finance Committee.

Mr. Cassidy, a doctor who also chairs the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, raised concerns about Mr. Kennedy during his confirmation hearings before both panels. In particular, he is concerned about Mr. Kennedy’s history of questioning the efficacy of vaccines and not accepting scientific evidence to the contrary.

“Does a 71-year-old man who has spent decades criticizing vaccines and who is financially vested in finding fault with vaccines, can he change his attitudes and approach now that he’ll have the most important position influencing vaccine policy in the United States?” Mr. Cassidy said, noting the answer to that question is determinative to his vote.

Tulsi Gabbard, Mr. Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence, is also in danger of not advancing out of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

She frustrated swing-vote GOP senators during her confirmation hearing with her answers to questions about her past support for Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency whistleblower who leaked thousands of classified documents about U.S. intelligence-gathering programs.

Sens. James Lankford, Oklahoma Republican, and Michael F. Bennet, Colorado Democrat, asked Ms. Gabbard whether she considered Mr. Snowden a traitor to the U.S. She acknowledged Mr. Snowden broke the law but refused to use the traitor label.

Mr. Lankford told Punchbowl News that he was surprised by Ms. Gabbard’s answer, saying, “I thought that was gonna be an easy softball question.”

Asked if that created a problem for her confirmation prospects, Mr. Lankford said, “I think there are a lot of questions after it, yeah.”

Even Republicans supporting Ms. Gabbard admit that she faces an uphill climb to being confirmed.

“I’m worried by what I hear from some of my Republican colleagues,” Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley said on Fox News. “I’m worried that her nomination may be in jeopardy.”