Two extra of President Trump’s nominees will face questions from senators Tuesday, whereas a 3rd, Treasury nominee Scott Bessent, will get a committee vote.
Former Rep. Doug Collins, an Air Pressure Reserve chaplain, will testify earlier than the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee as he seeks affirmation to guide the Veterans Affairs Division. And Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., will seem earlier than the Senate Overseas Relations Committee as Trump’s nominee to be the following U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The Senate Finance Committee, in the meantime, will convene at 10:15 a.m. and vote on whether or not to advance Bessent’s nomination to be secretary of the Treasury.
Collins would be the first potential cupboard official to obtain a listening to after Trump’s whirlwind of a primary day in workplace. After asserting {that a} “Golden Age of America” had begun in his inaugural tackle, the president swiftly took greater than 200 government actions on Monday to see his coverage imaginative and prescient come to life. It stays for the Senate to substantiate the important thing officers who will perform Trump’s orders.
Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins is Trump’s nominee to be VA secretary. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Name, Inc by way of Getty Photographs)
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio turned the primary of Trump’s cupboard picks to obtain congressional approval late Monday with a unanimous vote by the Senate. His affirmation was not stunning, as lots of his colleagues on each side of the aisle praised his sturdy overseas coverage background as a longtime member of the Senate Overseas Relations and Intelligence Committees.
Collins is likewise not anticipated to face a tough affirmation combat. A former congressman from Georgia and Navy veteran, as VA secretary he can be tasked with overseeing a beleaguered system of healthcare and advantages for the nation’s veterans. Lengthy wait occasions to see suppliers, lack of entry to group care, insufficient psychological well being assist and price range shortfalls are only a few of many issues which have plagued secretaries previous in each Republican and Democratic administrations.
A report published by the VA final month confirmed that there have been greater than 6,400 suicides amongst veterans in 2022, fewer than 12 of 14 earlier years however barely greater than in 2021. Ending veteran suicide was a prime precedence for the Biden administration. In November, the VA introduced that veteran homelessness had fallen to the bottom quantity on file underneath President Biden, though greater than 32,000 former service members remained on the streets between Jan. 2023 and Jan. 2024.
Below Trump’s path, the following VA secretary will seemingly even be tasked with rooting out variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives within the division, in addition to ending Biden-era insurance policies that present abortions and transgender medical procedures.
HUNDREDS OF VETERANS TO DESCEND ON DC TO MARCH IN SUPPORT OF PETE HEGSETH’S CONFIRMATION
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., has mentioned he’ll assist Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to be the following U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. (@EliseStefanik on X)
Collins was resulting from obtain a affirmation listening to final week, however an incomplete background verify delayed the continuing.
Whereas the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee convenes to query Collins at 10 a.m., the Senate Overseas Relations Committee will meet elsewhere within the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing to contemplate Stefanik’s nomination to signify the U.S. on the U.N.
Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican within the U.S. Home, is more likely to face questions on her relative lack of overseas coverage expertise and adamant assist for Israel, in addition to her views on the warfare between Russia and Ukraine.
In her opening remarks, excerpts of which had been obtained by Fox Information Digital, Stefanik will say that Trump sees nice promise within the U.N. “if it focuses on its founding mission of worldwide peace and safety. President Trump has lengthy advocated for peace and no new wars.”
US investor and hedge fund supervisor Scott Bessent testifies earlier than a Senate Finance Committee listening to on his nomination to be Secretary of the Treasury, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January 16, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
Stefanik is predicted to sail to affirmation within the U.N. position. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, has already mentioned he’ll vote for her – they’re each sturdy Israel supporters. She served on the Intelligence and Armed Providers Committees, however she went viral for her work on the opposite aspect of the desk final yr when she questioned college presidents and their insurance policies surrounding pro-Gaza protests throughout Schooling Committee hearings.
In the meantime, the Senate Finance Committee will vote on whether or not to advance the nomination of Bessent, a Wall Road investor and hedge fund supervisor, to guide the Treasury Division.
Throughout his affirmation hearings, Bessent mentioned the U.S. should prolong the 2017 tax cuts Trump signed into legislation in his first time period.
“That is the only most vital financial subject of the day,” Bessent instructed senators. “That is pass-fail. If we don’t repair these tax cuts, if we don’t renew and prolong, then we will likely be going through an financial calamity, and as all the time, with monetary instability that falls on the center and dealing class.”
Democrats pressed Bessent on the influence Trump’s tax cuts have had on the federal deficit and whether or not they disproportionately profit the wealthy on the expense of the poor and center lessons. Additionally they requested whether or not Trump’s proposed tariffs on overseas imports would improve inflation, however Bessent insisted they’d not.
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The Treasury nominee, who hails from South Carolina, emphasised that Trump’s insurance policies would prioritize Principal Road over Wall Road.
“I imagine Wall Road has completed nice the previous few years, and that Principal Road has suffered. I feel it is Principal Road’s time,” Bessent mentioned.
Fox Information Digital’s Alec Schemmel and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
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