This week: Senate churns through Trump nominations

The Senate is poised to quickly confirm at least three additional Trump nominees this week after a series of late-night talk-a-thons.

Senators will first finish up work on Steve Mnuchin’s nomination to be Treasury secretary. The Senate is slated to vote as late as Monday at 7 p.m. on the longtime Goldman Sachs banker after clearing a procedural hurdle – largely along party lines – in a rare early morning vote Friday.

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Democrats won’t be able to block Mnuchin — who they’ve nicknamed the “foreclosure king” — on their own. Trump’s nominees only need a simple majority and Republicans have 52 seats, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) also supporting Mnuchin in the initial vote late last week.

But Democrats have signaled they are willing to use the Senate’s rulebook to drag out debate on Mnuchin and other top Trump targets. They spent hours on the Senate floor last week, keeping the upper chamber in session for roughly 57 hours straight.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that Mnuchin “misled” lawmakers on foreclosure practices of California-based OneWest Bank when he oversaw it from 2009 and 2015, while Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio) late last week on the Senate floor accused Mnuchin of lying.

“A person who lies to Congress shouldn’t be the country’s top economic official, period,” Warren said Friday.

Democrats were hoping to peel off at least one Republican to vote against Mnuchin – Nevada Sen. Dean Heller. His state was hit hard by the recession and he’s one of the few vulnerable Republican senators up for reelection in 2018 in a state carried by Hillary Clinton. 

But Republicans have publicly coalesced behind Mnuchin’s nomination, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying he would be key to getting tax reform passed through Congress and helping roll back Obama-era regulations. 

“This Treasury nominee is smart, capable, and he’s got impressive private sector experience,” he said. “We need him confirmed as soon as possible so he can begin to tackle these challenges and reverse the last eight years of economic heartache.”

The Senate is also slated to take up two non-controversial Trump nominees early this week, a break from the hours-long floor fights that dominated last week’s tranche of picks.  

On Monday, the Senate will vote on David Shulkin to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is currently the agency’s undersecretary of health. 

Shulkin cleared the Veterans Affairs Committee unanimously last week. In a sign of how easily he is expected to clear the Senate, lawmakers agreed to vote after only 10 minutes of debate.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) praised Shulkin after he cleared the committee, predicting he would breeze through the full chamber and calling on Senate leaders “to confirm him in a timely fashion.”

On Tuesday, the Senate will also vote on Linda McMahon’s nomination to lead the Small Business Administration. 

Trump has nearly 10 nominees currently on the Senate’s executive calendar, which could allow them to get teed up for a vote as soon as this week. 

Tester as well as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) had also predicted that Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.), picked to lead the Interior Department, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, nominated to be Energy secretary, could come up this week. 

Congressional Review Act

For the third consecutive week, the House will consider a series of resolutions to overturn Obama-era regulations.

A law known as the Congressional Review Act allows Congress to pass resolutions of disapproval to unwind regulations within 60 legislative days after they go into effect. The measures can circumvent a filibuster, leaving Democrats with little power to stop them.

Regulations set for the House’s chopping block this week would determine states’ abilities to conduct drug testing programs for people applying for unemployment insurance; establish how states can set up payroll deduction savings programs for private sector workers; and clarify conservation mandates for national wildlife refuges in Alaska.

The most controversial vote will be on a Department of Health and Human Services regulation to prevent states from withholding family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion clinics.

Most federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood comes from Medicaid reimbursements for preventive care, while other funds result from Title X family planning grants for low-income individuals.

Federal law has long prohibited the use of taxpayer funds for abortion services, which make up only a part of what Planned Parenthood offers. But lawmakers and groups opposed to abortion have sought to eliminate any federal funds for the organization, even if they are meant for other services like STD testing or cancer screenings.