On March 30, the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee reported out the nominations of Sonny Perdue and Alexander Acosta for the posts of Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of Labor, respectively.
The nominations now head to the full Senate for its consideration.
After a drama-filled day of discussions and conversations between the House and the White House and among the House Republicans themselves, which did not ultimately create enough support for its passage, the healthcare legislation was pulled from the House floor before a vote. The path forward on the push to repeal and replace Obamacare remains uncertain.
After another day of intense back-and-forth among House Republicans, there still are not enough votes to secure passage of the current version of the healthcare repeal legislation. As a result, the House leadership has postponed the floor vote scheduled for tonight. Some reports are indicating that the vote could take place tomorrow morning, after further negotiations.
With the full House currently scheduled to take up the Obamacare repeal-and-replace healthcare bill later today, as of this writing, it still remains uncertain as to whether the White House and the House Republican leadership have been able to convince enough holdouts to get the legislation across the finish line. Many sources report that negotiations between many of the conservative opponents and the White House and the leadership continued throughout yesterday and last evening. At the same time, there are also reports that many of the concessions which may have been offered to the conservatives may have, in turn, alienated some of the moderates who were uneasy about the underlying legislation.
The situation on this front remains fluid and the Office of Federal Relations continues to monitor the situation.
On the other side of the Capitol today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue its questioning of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. The confirmation hearing is expected to wrap up this week, with the committee voting on his nomination in early April.
Also taking place today is the Senate Agriculture Committee’s confirmation hearing for Agriculture Secretary nominee Sonny Perdue, the former governor of Georgia.
Earlier today, the NASA Transition Authorization of 2017 was signed into law by President Trump. The bipartisan bill was adopted unanimously in both chambers of Congress. Historically, different presidential Administrations have sought to emphasize different areas of the agency’s broad mission and expertise, and the legislation was an attempt, in part, to provide stability for NASA during the first part of the transition to this Administration.