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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 22 Januari 2021

Senate confirms Biden 1st Cabinet pick

procedural tool often used by
the minority party to block
bills under rules that require
60 votes to advance legisla-
tion.
At her first White House
briefing, press secretary Jen
Psaki said Biden’s desire to
have his Cabinet confirmed
and in place is “front and
center for the president,”
and she said he was hoping
to have his national security
nominees in place Thursday
or Friday.
Psaki said the president will
be “quite involved” in negoti-
ations over the COVID relief
package, but left the details of
the upcoming impeachment
trial to Congress.
The Senate can “multitask,”
she said.
That’s a tall order for a Senate
under normal circumstances,
but even more so now in the
post-Trump era, with Repub-
licans badly split between
their loyalties to the defeated
president and wealthy donors
who are distancing them-
selves from Republicans who
back Trump.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-
Calif., is expected to soon
transmit to the Senate the
House-passed article of im-
peachment against Trump,
charged with incitement of
insurrection, a step that will
launch the Senate impeach-
(AP) — Three new sena- — the “majority makers” — his state’s first Latino senator, 400,000 Americans have died ment trial.
tors were sworn into of- who he said represent an “ex- tapped by California’s gover- from the virus. At the same Meantime, the power-shar-
fice after President Joe panding Democratic major- nor to finish the remainder of time, the Senate is about to ing talks between Schumer
Biden’s inauguration, se- ity.” Four are from the West Harris’ term. launch an impeachment trial and McConnell have hit a
curing the majority for and two from the South. They join a Senate narrowly of Trump, charged by the stalemate.
Democrats in the Sen- They are a diverse group split 50-50 between the par- House of inciting the insur- It’s an arcane fight McCon-
ate and across a unified bringing several firsts to the ties, but giving Democrats rection at the Capitol as ri- nell has inserted into what
government to tackle the Senate, along with Schum- the majority with Harris able oters tried to interrupt the has traditionally been a more
new president’s agenda at er’s rise as the first Jewish to cast the tie-breaking vote. Electoral College tally and routine organizing resolution
a time of unprecedented majority leader of the Senate. “Today, America is turning overturn Biden’s election. over committee assignments
national challenges. The three who joined on over a new leaf. We are turn- The Senate will need to con- and staffing resources, but a
Wednesday — Jon Ossoff ing the page on the last four firm other Biden Cabinet power play by the outgoing
In a first vote, the Senate and Raphael Warnock of years, we’re going to reunite nominees. Republican leader grabbing
confirmed Biden’s nominee Georgia and Alex Padilla of the country, defeat COV- Yet as Washington looks to at tools that can be used to
for director of national in- California — took the oath ID-19, rush economic relief turn the page from Trump block Biden’s agenda.
telligence, Avril Haines late of office from Kamala Harris, to the people,” Ossoff told to the Biden administration, Progressive and liberal Dem-
Wednesday, overcoming Re- a former California senator reporters earlier at the Capi- Republican leader Mitch Mc- ocrats are eager to do away
publican opposition to ap- who is first woman to be vice tol. “That’s what they sent us Connell of Kentucky is not with the filibuster to more
prove his first Cabinet mem- president, and the first Black here to do.” relinquishing power without quickly advance Biden’s
ber. It’s traditionally a show woman and Asian-American Taken together, their arrival a fight. priorities, but not all rank-
of good faith on Inauguration to hold that office. gives Democrats for the first Haines’ nomination was and-file Senate Democrats
Day to confirm at least some Warnock, a pastor from the time in a decade control of temporarily blocked by Sen. are on board. Schumer has
nominees for a new presi- late Martin Luther King Jr.’s the Senate, the House and the Tom Cotton, R-Ark., as he not agreed to any changes
dent’s administration. church in Atlanta, is the first White House, as Biden faces sought information about the but McConnell is taking no
On Thursday, the new Sen- Black senator from Georgia. the unparalleled challenges CIA’s enhanced interrogation chances.
ate majority leader, Sen. Ossoff, a former congres- of the COVID-19 crisis and program. Sen. Josh Hawley, For now, it will take unani-
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sional aide and investigative its economic fallout, and the R-Mo., is holding back the mous consent among sena-
said he hoped Biden’s nomi- journalist, is Jewish and also nation’s painful political divi- Homeland Security nomi- tors to toggle between con-
nees for the departments of the now youngest member of sions from the deadly Jan. 6 nee, Alejandro Mayorkas, ducting votes on legislative
Defense, Homeland Security, the Senate, at 33. siege of the Capitol by a mob over Biden’s proposed immi- business and serving as jurors
State and Treasury could also They won run-off elections loyal to Donald Trump. gration changes. in the impeachment trial. The
be swiftly confirmed. in Georgia this month, de- Congress is being called on McConnell is refusing to House last week impeached
“To leave these seats vacant feating two Republicans, to to consider Biden’s pro- enter a power-sharing agree- Trump for having sent the
does a disservice to America,” lock the majority for Demo- posed $1.9 trillion COVID ment with Senate Demo- mob to the Capitol to “fight
Schumer said at the Capitol. crats. recovery package, to distrib- crats unless they meet his like hell” during the tally of
Schumer introduced all six Padilla, a the son of immi- ute vaccines and shore up demands, chiefly to preserve Electoral College votes to
new Democratic senators grants from Mexico, becomes an economy as more than the Senate filibuster — the overturn Biden’s election.