How Does the Confirmation Process Work?

The election of a new president brings with it the challenge of appointing new Cabinet secretaries, as most presidents choose not to retain members of their predecessor’s Cabinet so that they can put their administration’s mark on the executive branch. But the legislative branch has an important role to play in the process, as most (but not all) nominations put forward by the president have to be confirmed by the Senate.

What positions require Senate confirmation?

All 15 Cabinet positions require confirmation before a nominee can assume his or her role as the head of an executive branch department, and every Cabinet-level official other than the White House Chief of Staff has to go through the process. Ambassadors and other high-level officials must also be confirmed by the Senate, as do Supreme Court justices.

What happens in the Senate?

After a nominee has made their financial disclosures, they’re vetted by the White House and FBI to ensure that they’re fit to serve. Once that’s accomplished, the nomination is officially sent to the Senate, where it is assigned to a relevant committee. For example, Supreme Court nominations go to the Judiciary Committee, while the Armed Services Committee handles the Secretary of Defense nomination.

From there, the committee can either send it straight to the Senate floor for a vote, hold hearings before voting as a committee, or do nothing and attempt to kill the nomination. If they choose to do nothing, the Senate can invoke cloture (a three-fifths vote) and pull the nomination out of committee so it can advance. Typically, a committee will hold hearings and then vote, with a simple majority required to send it to the full Senate.

Once a nomination is out of committee, the Senate will vote on it. For all non-Supreme Court nominations, a simple majority is all that’s needed for confirmation thanks to a 2013 change to Senate rules that eliminated the need for the approval of three-fifths of senators.

Are many nominations rejected?

Rejections are relatively rare, but they happen far more often for Supreme Court nominations than for Cabinet posts or other positions in the executive branch. The last would-be Supreme Court justice to be rejected was Robert Bork in 1987, though President Reagan also withdrew another nomination that year and President George W. Bush withdrew Harriet Miers’s nomination in 2005.

For non-judicial nominations, three have been rejected or withdrawn since 1989 — John Tower as Secretary of Defense in 1989, Dr. Henry Foster as Surgeon General in 1994, and Linda Chavez as Labor Secretary in 2001. Both Foster and Chavez withdrew their names from consideration, while Tower’s nomination was rejected by the Senate on a 47-53 vote which was the first time the Senate had ever rejected a Cabinet appointment of a newly elected president.

When does the process officially begin?

As soon as the new Congress takes office, it can begin the process of vetting nominees and holding confirmation hearings. However, an appointment can’t be confirmed until the new president takes office, so final confirmation votes won’t occur until after the inauguration.

— Eric Revell

(Photo by U.S. Senate Historical Office / Public Domain)