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Two much of President Trump's nominees volition look questions from senators Tuesday, portion a third, Treasury nominee Scott Bessent, volition get a committee vote.
Former Rep. Doug Collins, an Air Force Reserve chaplain, volition attest earlier the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee arsenic helium seeks confirmation to pb the Veterans Affairs Department. And Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., volition look earlier the Senate Foreign Relations Committee arsenic Trump's nominee to beryllium the adjacent U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
The Senate Finance Committee, meanwhile, volition convene astatine 10:15 a.m. and ballot connected whether to beforehand Bessent's information to beryllium caput of the Treasury.
Collins volition beryllium the archetypal imaginable furniture authoritative to person a proceeding aft Trump's whirlwind of a archetypal time successful office. After announcing that a "Golden Age of America" had begun successful his inaugural address, the president swiftly took much than 200 enforcement actions connected Monday to spot his argumentation imaginativeness travel to life. It remains for the Senate to corroborate the cardinal officials who volition transportation retired Trump's orders.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio became the archetypal of Trump's furniture picks to person legislature support precocious Monday with a unanimous ballot by the Senate. His confirmation was not surprising, arsenic galore of his colleagues connected some sides of the aisle praised his beardown overseas argumentation inheritance arsenic a longtime subordinate of the Senate Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees.
Collins is likewise not expected to look a hard confirmation fight. A erstwhile congressman from Georgia and Navy veteran, as VA secretary helium would beryllium tasked with overseeing a beleaguered strategy of healthcare and benefits for the nation's veterans. Long hold times to spot providers, deficiency of entree to assemblage care, inadequate intelligence wellness enactment and fund shortfalls are conscionable a fewer of galore problems that person plagued secretaries past successful some Republican and Democratic administrations.
A study published by the VA past period showed that determination were much than 6,400 suicides among veterans successful 2022, less than 12 of 14 erstwhile years but somewhat much than successful 2021. Ending seasoned termination was a apical precedence for the Biden administration. In November, the VA announced that seasoned homelessness had fallen to the lowest fig connected grounds nether President Biden, though much than 32,000 erstwhile work members remained connected the streets betwixt Jan. 2023 and Jan. 2024.
Under Trump's direction, the adjacent VA caput volition apt besides beryllium tasked with rooting retired diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives successful the department, arsenic good arsenic ending Biden-era policies that supply abortions and transgender aesculapian procedures.
HUNDREDS OF VETERANS TO DESCEND ON DC TO MARCH IN SUPPORT OF PETE HEGSETH'S CONFIRMATION
Collins was owed to person a confirmation proceeding past week, but an incomplete inheritance cheque delayed the proceeding.
While the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee convenes to question Collins astatine 10 a.m., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee volition conscionable elsewhere successful the Dirksen Senate Office Building to see Stefanik's information to correspond the U.S. astatine the U.N.
Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican successful the U.S. House, is apt to look questions astir her comparative deficiency of overseas argumentation acquisition and adamant enactment for Israel, arsenic good arsenic her views connected the warfare betwixt Russia and Ukraine.
In her opening remarks, excerpts of which were obtained by Fox News Digital, Stefanik volition accidental that Trump sees large committedness successful the U.N. "if it focuses connected its founding ngo of planetary bid and security. President Trump has agelong advocated for bid and nary caller wars."
Stefanik is expected to sail to confirmation successful the U.N. role. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, has already said helium volition ballot for her – they are some beardown Israel supporters. She served connected the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, but she went viral for her enactment connected the different broadside of the array past twelvemonth erstwhile she questioned assemblage presidents and their policies surrounding pro-Gaza protests during Education Committee hearings.
Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee volition ballot connected whether to beforehand the information of Bessent, a Wall Street capitalist and hedge money manager, to pb the Treasury Department.
During his confirmation hearings, Bessent said the U.S. indispensable widen the 2017 taxation cuts Trump signed into instrumentality successful his archetypal term.
"This is the azygous astir important economical contented of the day," Bessent told senators. "This is pass-fail. If we bash not hole these taxation cuts, if we bash not renew and extend, past we volition beryllium facing an economical calamity, and arsenic always, with fiscal instability that falls connected the mediate and moving class."
Democrats pressed Bessent connected the interaction Trump's taxation cuts person had connected the national shortage and whether they disproportionately payment the affluent astatine the disbursal of the mediocre and mediate classes. They besides asked whether Trump's projected tariffs connected overseas imports would summation inflation, but Bessent insisted they would not.
The Treasury nominee, who hails from South Carolina, emphasized that Trump's policies would prioritize Main Street implicit Wall Street.
"I judge Wall Street has done large the past fewer years, and that Main Street has suffered. I deliberation it's Main Street's time," Bessent said.
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