Weekly Spotlight: Takeaways from the First Week of Confirmation Hearings

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Confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet are in full swing, with some of the more contentious nominees facing Senate questioning this past week. The people who sit in these roles will be making consequential policy decisions that will impact your life for years to come.

One of those people is Russell Vought, nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget. At his hearing on Wednesday, he dodged questions about reimplementing Schedule F and called the Impoundment Control Act unconstitutional, leaving us deeply concerned about his intentions — which is why we once again urged Senators to reject the nomination. (As did 59 other good-government organizations who signed onto our letter this week.)

Another is Kristi Noem, nominee for secretary of homeland security. Noem gave senators vague responses to questions about withholding disaster relief for political reasons and sending the military into states. She also falsely denied that the Trump-era family separation policy — an inhumane policy that POGO has extensively investigated — ever existed. We don’t believe she should be entrusted the power to lead our country’s largest law enforcement agency, and we oppose her nomination as well.

We also closely followed the confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, nominee for secretary of defense, to see if he could quell our concerns about his lack of experience or fitness for the role he’s nominated to — we remain thoroughly unconvinced and concerned.

Congress has the constitutionally granted power to have the final say on Cabinet nominations, and as your voice in the federal government, they’re obligated to you to take that responsibility seriously. Views that were expressed at these hearings made it clear that the balance of power within our federal government is on the line. The Senate can take a step toward protecting and restoring that balance by rejecting Vought’s nomination: Tell them to do so.

INVESTIGATION

Private Prison Giant Hired ICE Detention Chief

GEO Group hired a top ICE official — one of many over the years — as the company stands to profit from the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We really need to do a much more serious analysis and not just based on assumptions that the private sector is less expensive to the government because it’s not.”

Danielle Brian, Executive Director, on Federal News Network

ONE LINERS

“Sometimes it’s easier to just buy something, especially near the end of the fiscal year in August or September, to drive the budget up than to use something that you already have.”

Scott Amey, General Counsel, in Reason

“But unless the discount is so significant that there is zero profit for the Trump administration, the president will still be making money from requiring that the Secret Service stay at his resorts, and that is unethical.”

Danielle Brian, Executive Director, in Reuters