Hey GOP, Put Your Foot Down and Demand That Trump Fill Vacancies!

Congress has a lot of important jobs and one of them is to "advise and confirm" nominees to key positions in the federal government. Congress hasn't been doing much of that during the Trump administration, though, because the president isn't furnishing nominees for the Senate to evaluate.

It's time for Congressional Republicans to step up and tell the president the large number of unfilled vacancies in the government is unacceptable.

This is not how you run a functional government: By relying on "acting" secretaries, deputies, and other officials, Trump is setting the executive branch up for a lawsuit, because it's possible their regulatory actions may not be viewed as binding. And by failing to nominate people, the president is doing an end-run on Congress and making it impossible for elected officials to evaluate nominees to determine whether they're the best people for the job.

Of the 705 confirmable roles, Trump hasn't even provided nominations for 150 positions! It's been two years, and the administration is officially out of excuses. We need real people that the American people had an opportunity to see go through confirmation hearings in those roles, not "acting" Trump cronies who treat government agencies like their own private fiefdoms.

Some Republicans, like Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, are starting to express concerns about the vacancies in the Trump administration, as well they should. It's time for others of their party to join them and push the president to stop relying on temporary staffing at key agencies like the Department of Defense and Department of Justice.

Photo credit: franckreporter/Getty Images

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