Chairman Orrin Hatch talks to reporters after Democrats boycott a Senate Finance Committee open executive session to consider the nomination of Steven Terner Mnuchin to be Secretary of the Treasury and the Nomination of Thomas Price to be Secretary of Health and Human Services Feb. 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO GOP breaks Dem blockade on Mnuchin and Price Democrats 'have nobody to blame but themselves,' Orrin Hatch says.



Senate Republicans on Wednesday began breaking through a Democratic blockade of several Cabinet nominees, steering President Donald Trump's chosen advisers around a loudly protesting minority.

After Democrats boycotted committee votes on Trump's Treasury and health secretary picks for the second straight day, the GOP unilaterally changed the panel's rules to approve both nominees without their votes. Democrats also sat out a committee vote on Trump's Environmental Protection Agency nominee, but Republicans vowed to push past that roadblock as well.


The GOP offensive drew vocal protests from Democrats, and further heightened partisan tensions gripping the Senate as Democrats press for a 60-vote margin to confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. But while the Democratic rebellion against Treasury nominee Steven Mnuchin, Health and Human Services nominee Rep. Tom Price, and EPA nominee Scott Pruitt delighted their base and liberal activist groups, all three picks remain on track for confirmation thanks to broad Republican support.

"They have nobody to blame but themselves,” Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Finance Committee, said after Democrats refused to show up for the second straight day of scheduled votes on Mnuchin and Price.

The Republican decision to suspend committee rules that require a member of the minority to participate in a confirmation was "deeply troubling," said Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Finance panel's top Democrat. Even before the Democratic boycott began on Tuesday, Wyden said he would vote against Price and Mnuchin

And several other Trump Cabinet nominees were moving through the confirmation process Wednesday despite Democrats' boycott bids — although slower than Republicans and the president would like. A vote on secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson is set for later Wednesday, with the former ExxonMobil CEO expected to win confirmation.

Attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) won approval by the Judiciary committee on a party-line vote, setting him up as one of the next two nominees likely to receive Senate floor time, alongside Education secretary pick Betsy DeVos.

And while the homeland security committee also delayed a vote on Rep. Mick Mulvaney’s nomination to be White House budget director, his vote is expected to take place on Thursday. The panel's top Democrat, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, said she wanted more time to review the late-arriving FBI background check on the South Carolina Republican.

Democrats said they were boycotting the confirmation proceedings because of concerns that Price and Mnuchin had misled the committee, and that the nominees needed to provide more information. Democrats said in a letter to Hatch that they wanted more information on Price's privileged and discounted access to stocks and answers from Mnuchin on "robo-signing" and foreclosures by the bank he once led, OneWest.

"We have significant concerns that both Mr. Mnuchin and Congressman Price gave inaccurate and misleading testimony and responses to questions to the Committee," the Democrats said.

Republicans slammed them as being obstructionists and downplayed their concerns with the nominees. The GOP adopted a similar approach in the environment committee, where chairman Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) vowed to push past the Democratic boycott of EPA nominee Scott Pruitt — though he declined to say exactly how he would do so.

"This amounts to nothing more than political theater at the expense of working on issues we care about," Barrasso said, adding that the Democrats' actions would have consequences. "This will impact future EPA administrator nominees. These precedents for this delay will likely have long-term impacts after today's nominee has left office."

Democrats have answered GOP frustration about the committee boycotts by pointing to 2013, when Barrasso and other Republicans sat out a committee vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead then-President Barack Obama's EPA. But Barrasso said the two strategies aren't comparable.

“That was not a new president, newly elected,” he said. “A newly elected president, I believe, has a right to their cabinet and that’s what I’m comparing."

Five high-level Trump advisers have been confirmed by the Senate so far since his inauguration: Defense Secretary James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, Central Intelligence Agency chief Mike Pompeo, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. As Republicans have often pointed out, Obama saw seven Cabinet-level nominees confirmed on his first day in office in 2009.

Alex Guillen and Annie Snider contributed to this report.

