Senate GOP tees up confirmation hearing blitz in effort to meet ambitious Trump targets

Republicans will hold confirmation hearings this week for more than a dozen high-profile administration picks for President-elect Trump's next term, including those for Pete Hegseth, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Gov. Kristi Noem, R-S.D. Hegseth, Trump's Secretary of Defense pick, will have one of the first hearings on Tuesday, when he will go before the Senate Armed Services Committee at 9:30 a.m. and face questions from both Democrats and Republicans. Rubio and Noem were tapped by Trump to be his Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, respectively. Noem will appear before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday at 9 a.m., while Rubio is set to face the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations at 10 a.m.

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Other Tuesday hearings include those for Doug Collins to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for Secretary of the Interior.

Trump also chose Pam Bondi for attorney general, John Ratcliffe to direct the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Russell Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Sean Duffy for Secretary of Transportation and Chris Wright to be Secretary of Energy. Hearings for each of them will be on Wednesday.

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Eric Turner, who Trump tapped to be his next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Scott Bessent, whom the president-elect announced as his pick to lead the Treasury Department, have hearings scheduled for Thursday.

The hearing blitz comes as Republicans prepare to confirm as many Trump nominees as they can, as quickly as they can.

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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., explained his hope to confirm his choices promptly, on "Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street" on Friday, saying, "In the past, the minority party has not obstructed at least a handful of high-ranking Cabinet members to be approved in the first week. So I'm hopeful that Secretary of State, as well as Department of Homeland Security, will be approved either on the day of the inauguration, the day after or that week, as well as a few others — Department of Defense."

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"So, I'm hoping we get to it quickly and that we don't muddle it around. And I still have my fingers crossed that that's going to happen. As far as the two that I'm in charge of, I've seen no resistance on the Republican side. And some indication that we may get some Democrat support as well," he added.

Republicans are particularly motivated to confirm Trump's national security team, especially in the wake of a recent terror attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, in which 14 were killed, and 35 people were injured.

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