With a strong possibility that control of the Senate will flip to Democrats after next week’s midterms, there is growing concern among administration officials that positions needing Senate approval are headed for a rough road.
According to the Washington Post, the number of vacant Senate-confirmed positions "is the highest since Ronald Reagan was in office," according to an analysis by the Partnership for Public Service, a watchdog group that tracks presidential appointments. Current and former officials say they are "frustrated" that the White House personnel office "has not kept pace."
A mix of high turnover, slow confirmations and withdrawn nominations has “created a situation in which there’s unprecedented levels of vacancies across leadership positions in the federal government,” said Chris Piper, senior manager at the Partnership for Public Service.
Eight White House and administration officials and allies told the Post they fear the administration is squandering its chance to install senior officials at agencies handling national security, immigration, economic policy and energy while Republicans still control the Senate. Some told the Post that the Office of Presidential Personnel is to blame.
Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino has publicly acknowledged how hard it is to find the right candidates. He warned people recommending appointees that “your name is 100 percent attached to them.”
The White House got a reminder of the stakes this month. Trump picked Katie Zacharia as press secretary without detailed background checks, according to the Post’s sources. She lasted five days before stepping down amid questions about her legal credentials. Around the same time, Trump’s ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, was asked to resign amid misconduct allegations.
One Trump veteran blamed the slowdown partly on officials being "afraid to take risks," since a single bad pick can put them in the spotlight with critics and with the president.
“It is hard work trying to find loyal and talented people,” the person told the Post. “The incentive structure is to never do anything. Imagine you play basketball, but every time you miss a shot, you get benched.”
As the Post put it, the administration is “running out of time to fill posts if Republicans lose the Senate or their majority shrinks.”
Trump has said he likes putting people in “acting” roles because it lets him move quickly. But there are legal limits on what officials who haven’t been confirmed can do.
A Democratic Senate, or a smaller GOP majority, would make things harder, starting with the lame-duck session.
“The lame duck is always really hard when it comes to nominees,” a White House official said. “In the Senate, horse trading reaches its peak in December. ... People holding nominees, people blocking nominees.”
Donald Devine, who ran Reagan’s Office of Personnel Management, said the current pace is already slow. “Certainly, if the Republicans lose the Senate, that’s going to get a lot worse.”