Cruz Plans Swift Senate Commerce Confirmation for Trump Nominees
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Thursday the panel will “swiftly” go through the vetting and confirmation process for Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, President-elect Donald Trump’s planned commerce secretary nominee, and other current and potential picks…
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once Cruz becomes chairman in January. Trump said Wednesday night he plans to name former Arizona Senate and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake (R) to lead Voice of America. In addition, he said he would nominate a new head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, who will technically be the one to appoint Lake to the VOA role. Current VOA Director Michael Abramowitz took office over the summer (see 2404190020). “We will both thoroughly vet new nominees and … swiftly confirm them, responsibly carrying out the Senate’s advice and consent role,” Cruz said ahead of Senate Commerce votes to advance a raft of Biden nominees. Senate Commerce in part advanced CPB board nominees Felix Sanchez and Adam White (see 2412060051). Senate Commerce and “others have often even held nomination hearings prior to the inauguration” of a president, including in the lead-up to when President Joe Biden took office in 2021, Cruz said. The panel has also “voted on cabinet nominees … within a week of their hearings.” He intends “to follow a similar practice for nominations next Congress and to work to move qualified and competent nominees expeditiously.”