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'It's way too many': As vacancies pile up in Trump administration, senators grow concerned
Health & Science
‘It’s way too many’: As vacancies pile up in Trump administration, senators grow concerned
By Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey and Seung Min Kim
February 4 at 3:53 PM
From the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs, vast swaths of the government have top positions filled by officials serving in an acting capacity — or no one at all. More than two years into Trump’s term, the president has an acting chief of staff, attorney general, defense secretary, Office of Management and Budget director and Environmental Protection Agency chief.
To deal with the number of vacancies in the upper ranks of departments, agencies have been relying on novel and legally questionable personnel moves that could leave the administration’s policies open to court challenges.
The lack of permanent leaders has started to alarm top congressional Republicans who are pressing for key posts to be filled.
“It’s a lot, it’s way too many,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said of the acting positions in Cabinet agencies. “You want to have confirmed individuals there because they have a lot more authority to be able to make decisions and implement policy when you have a confirmed person in that spot.”
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Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books — one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other — and has worked for The Post since 1998. Follow https://twitter.com/eilperin
Josh Dawsey is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal. Follow https://twitter.com/jdawsey1
Seung Min Kim is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, covering the Trump administration through the lens of Capitol Hill. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, she spent more than eight years at Politico, primarily covering the Senate and immigration policy. Follow https://twitter.com/seungminkim
‘It’s way too many’: As vacancies pile up in Trump administration, senators grow concerned
By Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey and Seung Min Kim
February 4 at 3:53 PM
From the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs, vast swaths of the government have top positions filled by officials serving in an acting capacity — or no one at all. More than two years into Trump’s term, the president has an acting chief of staff, attorney general, defense secretary, Office of Management and Budget director and Environmental Protection Agency chief.
To deal with the number of vacancies in the upper ranks of departments, agencies have been relying on novel and legally questionable personnel moves that could leave the administration’s policies open to court challenges.
The lack of permanent leaders has started to alarm top congressional Republicans who are pressing for key posts to be filled.
“It’s a lot, it’s way too many,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said of the acting positions in Cabinet agencies. “You want to have confirmed individuals there because they have a lot more authority to be able to make decisions and implement policy when you have a confirmed person in that spot.”
....
....
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books — one on sharks and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other — and has worked for The Post since 1998. Follow https://twitter.com/eilperin
Josh Dawsey is a White House reporter for The Washington Post. He joined the paper in 2017. He previously covered the White House for Politico, and New York City Hall and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for the Wall Street Journal. Follow https://twitter.com/jdawsey1
Seung Min Kim is a White House reporter for The Washington Post, covering the Trump administration through the lens of Capitol Hill. Before joining The Washington Post in 2018, she spent more than eight years at Politico, primarily covering the Senate and immigration policy. Follow https://twitter.com/seungminkim
There was this comment:
Mary M. Roeser 1 minute ago
Ask yourself this: Who of any quality, talent, or ability would want to work in this toxic misadministration? What A-list person would stoop so low as to labor in this Z-list bunch? The cabinet consists of corrupt, money-grubbing criminals with conflicts of interest up one side and down the other, people who have no idea what their agency or department is all about, no sense of relatability , compassion, or even interest in the people for whom their department is supposed to work, idiots who buy $31,000 dining room sets for themselves, but think poverty is a life-choice, a bottle blond who cannot put together a straight answer to any question, not even "What's your name?", an education secretary determined to sabotage public education, and "acting" secretaries of whatever who certainly don't act for the public good.
Working in this gang of crooks, conmen, and incompetents is a job- and career-killer. No one with the brains God gave gravel wants "worked for the Trump administration" on his or her C.V.
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