Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao on Thursday blamed Democrats for slowing down federal agencies by jamming the nomination process in the Senate.
“There’s not one department in the whole federal government that is fully staffed up in terms of non-carrier leadership,” Ms. Chao said at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Mr. Perry stressed that his department had to slow down some of the projects they are working on because of the vacancies.
There are hundreds of nominees still pending in the Senate.
Ms. Chao defended her husband, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and placed blame for the backlog squarely on Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat.
“It is the deliberate policy of the Senate Minority Leader to slow up the nominations of this administration by invoking cloture,” she said.
Republicans are considering eliminating the filibuster for some of the president’s nominees in an attempt to speed up the confirmation process.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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