Trump’s four predecessors were at least three times faster than the current president at getting their nominees into their desks. Some 49 of Trump’s key nominees have been confirmed as of Thursday, according to the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan group that tracks more than 500 key appointments. That’s compared to 201 for Barack Obama, 185 for George W. Bush, 196 for Bill Clinton and 148 or George H.W. Bush.
What that means is entire wings of the government are largely devoid of Trump appointees — with few of the president’s aides setting policies, reviewing regulations, overseeing the bureaucracy or being available for meetings with advocates, lobbyists or others. On some key policy pushes like health care and taxes, policymaking is being run largely from the West Wing, partially because are few people at the agencies…
A senior Democratic aide said the party was deliberately delaying nominees because of the president’s approach and policy agenda and would also continue to invoke the “two-hour rule,” which keeps committees from meeting longer than two hours. This person said there was no benefit to having more of Trump’s people in place.
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