The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday advanced President Donald Trump's nominees to head the departments of Health and Human Services and the Treasury without Democrat votes.
The Senate Finance Committee was scheduled to markup the vote on the nomination of Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary Monday night, but the vote was delayed. The committee was scheduled to meet again at 10 a.m. on Tuesday to vote on Tom Price's confirmation as HHS secretary, but Democrats boycotted the markup.
In an attempt to get the nominees through, Republicans voted to suspend the panel's rules and voted in a 14-0 vote to approve them.
"For the record, I'll note that the Senate Parliamentarian Office has confirmed that this course of action is consistent with both the committee and Senate rules," said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah).
Now the vote will advance to the full Senate, where all members will vote on whether the nominees will be confirmed.
Sen. Hatch noted his disappointment in the Democrats at a hearing Tuesday, saying that the lawmakers had ample time to ask questions, have hearings, and meet with the nominees.
"Democrats on the other side are deliberately boycotting this markup," Hatch said. "I'm very disappointed in this type of crap. There's no excuse for it."
"This is the most pathetic thing I've seen in my whole time in the United States Senate," the senator added. "We've had hearings, we've had these people appear, they’ve gone to their offices, they’ve talked with them there, we kept the hearings going as long as they wanted them to go."