WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, pledged his support Sunday for all of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, and that they need to be confirmed ASAP even if the process that begins this week could be rocky for some of them.
Barrasso, appearing Sunday on the CBS News program “Face the Nation,” also addressed Republicans’ procedural strategy to move major legislation, as well as wildfire relief money for California and President Joe Biden’s executive order banning offshore oil and gas drilling on 625 million acres off of U.S. coasts.
The confirmation hearings at the committee level will begin Tuesday for the Cabinet picks, and some Democrats are taking aim at Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s choices for secretary of defense and director of national intelligence, respectively.
Also, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa has raised questions about Hegseth over an alleged sexual assault that he has denied, but Barrasso said he backs all of Trump’s selections.
“When we met with President Trump just earlier this past week, he said the No. 1 goal for the Senate needs to be to get his team in place. I met with just about all of them. I support every one of these nominees,” Barrasso told “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.
Fine With Hegseth, Gabbard
Barrasso is the Senate majority whip, the second-ranking member in the chamber’s leadership behind Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the majority leader. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate.
Hegseth’s road to potential confirmation will begin Tuesday in the Senate Armed Services Committee, which includes Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts. She told the nominee in a Jan. 6 letter to prepare for a grilling on the sexual assault claim and other issues including “mismanagement of two non-profit organizations you ran.”
On Monday afternoon, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, previewed the hearings due to begin the following day. He said on the Senate floor that Hegseth and other nominees can expect “tough, candid, but fair questioning” from Democrats.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Hegesth’s background is deeply troubling, to put it generously,” said Schumer, not naming any other nominees.
Barrasso expressed no reservations about the Army veteran, telling Brennan on the news program: “He certainly has the qualities that we need to lead the Pentagon. He knows about a fit, fighting force. He is very qualified. In my opinion, he has a distinguished record of service in the military.
“If you take a look at the current nominee compared to who has been in the Pentagon the last four years where they had a woke military, where recruitment went down, morale went down,” he added. “I think Pete is going to be terrific in terms of recruitment, in terms of morale, in terms of returning America to a fighting force, which is what the American people really want.”
Gabbard will go before the Senate Intelligence Committee, though that may not happen this week as Democrats seek extensive background documentation on her, something Barrasso called a “paperwork problem.”
“I support Tulsi Gabbard,” Barrasso said. “She is amazing in that she has been a member of Congress and a decorated combat veteran for her work under fire in Iraq.”
Nominees for other high-profile Cabinet posts to be taken up in committees in the days ahead include Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Kristi Noem for secretary of homeland security, Pam Bondi for attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of health and human services. In all, there are 13 nominees awaiting confirmation.
If former Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is confirmed for secretary of the Interior, he could play a major role in Wyoming’s economy by shaping and implementing policies favorable to the coal and oil industries — as well as for ranchers whose cattle and other livestock graze on federal lands. He goes before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Tuesday.
Offshore Drilling
“Face the Nation’s” Brennan brought up Biden’s Jan. 6 executive order banning oil and gas drilling on 625 million acres off the U.S. coasts. She asked Barrasso whether Senate Republicans — through a process called budget reconciliation, involving fiscal issues like taxes and spending — would tuck in language reversing that order.
“What President Biden just did with executive order, I expect that President Trump will eliminate with executive orders as well,” the senator responded.
Budget reconciliation allows the Senate to move legislation on taxes, spending, the debt limit and other fiscal policies with a simple majority of votes, 51, as opposed to a filibuster-proof supermajority.
The White House issued a statement at the time of the order, saying Biden “has determined that the environmental and economic risks and harms that would result from drilling in these areas outweigh their limited fossil fuel resource potential.”
Major Legislation
Questions linger about budget reconciliation and the number of bills Congress will move on major legislation. But Barrasso said it does not matter how Congress advances Trump’s agenda as long as it gets done.
“We were sent here, and President Trump says he doesn’t care if it’s one bill, two bills, three bills — he wants results,” Barrasso said.
“We are united on securing the border, bringing down costs for American citizens,” the senator added. “We want to make sure tax cuts don’t expire. We want to make sure that the country is safe and strong. Those are the issues that the American people elected us to do. That’s what we’re here to do.”
He also said he expects Trump to issue a “blizzard” of executive orders once inaugurated on Jan. 20.
Wildfire Aid
Barrasso called the wildfire devastation in and around Los Angeles “heartbreaking,” but said any federal aid for the disasters will come with “strings attached.”
“There can’t be a blank check on this … because people want to make sure as rebuilding occurs, as things go on in California, they have to be resilient so that these sorts of things can’t happen again,” he said on the news program. “And the policies of the liberal administration out there, I believe have made these fires worse.
