Bondi, Rubio, Vought, Other Nominees Face Confirmation Hearings: What to Know

WASHINGTON—Senators will query a number of of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees on Jan. 15.

Queries about partisanship and loyalty to the president-elect are anticipated to be posed to many, whereas different traces of questioning might be extra particular to particular person nominees.

Listed below are key particulars on the hearings.

Bondi Could Be Requested About Weaponization of Justice

The nomination listening to for Pam Bondi, Trump’s alternative for legal professional normal, would be the first of the day at 9:30 a.m. in entrance of the Senate’s judiciary committee.

It’ll seemingly provoke questions from each side about alleged political bias on the Division of Justice (DOJ). Whereas Republicans have accused Legal professional Common Merrick Garland of weaponizing the DOJ in opposition to conservatives and Trump, Democrats fear that the incoming government will use the division to punish his political opponents.

“When Republicans take again the White Home … the Division of Justice, the prosecutors might be prosecuted—the dangerous ones,” she stated. “The investigators might be investigated.”

Durbin described the assertion as a promise to “weaponize the Division.”

Republicans could concentrate on the top of particular counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump and the way the DOJ would possibly help Congress in investigating Smith’s conduct below President Joe Biden’s administration.

The three-term senator, lengthy identified for his hawkish stance on overseas coverage, is near a positive guess among the many Cupboard nominees.

Rubio’s major considerations embrace the threats posed by an more and more aggressive Chinese language regime.

He has served on the Congressional-Government Fee on China since 2015 and advocated for stronger measures to curb human rights abuses in that nation. Beijing put him on its sanctions listing twice in 2020 due to his positions on Hong Kong and on Xinjiang, the place Uyghur Muslims face arbitrary detention, compelled labor, and different abuses.

Rubio additionally helps divesting from China and has known as for proscribing U.S. expertise exports to China, in addition to guidelines to shut China tariff loopholes.

Rubio is more likely to take pleasure in bipartisan help for his affirmation.

Durbin has issued a press release affirming he’ll vote for Rubio.

He stated he believes Rubio, who lengthy served on the Senate International Relations Committee, “has an intensive understanding of the USA’ function on a global scale” and that the 2 “share many comparable views on overseas coverage.”

Fossil Gasoline Ties, Local weather Views Influence Wright

The president-elect’s nominee to steer the Division of Power, Chris Wright, is an power entrepreneur who has labored on every little thing from small modular nuclear reactors to geothermal power.

Throughout his listening to earlier than the Senate Committee on Power and Pure Sources, lawmakers could pay extra consideration to his fossil gasoline ties and his skepticism about some climate-related insurance policies.

Wright is the CEO of Liberty Power, a number one hydraulic fracking agency.

Wright’s listening to is at the moment scheduled for 10 a.m. on Jan. 15.

He might be scrutinized by the identical committee at 10 a.m.

Ratcliffe has established a popularity as a China hawk, consistent with the views of Trump’s picks for key overseas coverage and intelligence-related roles. In a 2020 opinion article for the Wall Road Journal, he characterised the nation as the USA’ high nationwide safety menace.

Part 702 of the International Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows warrantless surveillance of People regardless of being focused by Congress at overseas terrorists, may come up.

Ratcliffe helps the supply, which is ready for reauthorization subsequent 12 months. So does Trump’s new potential DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, who beforehand opposed it.

Duffy Could Discuss Longshoremen and Roads

Former Congressman Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary nominee, can have his affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee at 10 a.m.

That listening to will seemingly embrace quite a lot of matters, from how he would deal with the longshoremen engaged on the nation’s seaports to how he plans to deal with Boeing and rules relating to the nation’s aerospace trade. The present chief of the Federal Aviation Administration, Mike Whitaker, will go away his publish on Jan. 20.

America’s roads are more likely to come up, too. The Biden administration labored to broaden electrical automobiles throughout the nation over the previous 4 years by tax credit, pushing for mandates, and federally funding the set up of charging stations. Questions may additionally come up over Duffy’s priorities for infrastructure below federal management.

In his nomination announcement, Trump stated Duffy “will guarantee our ports and dams serve our Financial system with out compromising our Nationwide Safety, and he’ll make our skies secure once more by eliminating DEI for pilots and air site visitors controllers.”

Vought More likely to Be Pressed on Mission 2025

Russ Vought is on tempo to steer the White Home’s Workplace of Administration and Funds (OMB), the identical place he held throughout Trump’s first time period.

His nomination listening to earlier than the Senate Committee on Homeland Safety and Governmental Affairs is slated for 1 p.m.

Democrats have criticized Vought over his ties to Mission 2025, the Heritage Basis’s roadmap for a conservative presidency. Trump distanced himself from that doc whereas on the marketing campaign path however has nominated a number of Mission 2025 contributors since Election Day.

Vought authored the chapter on the Government Workplace of the President, which incorporates the OMB as its largest element. In a subchapter on the OMB, he described methods to position that workplace below extra direct presidential management and make businesses extra conscious of the need of the manager.