Trump’s wait for his major Cabinet picks was nearly the longest in 30 years

The Senate confirmed the last of President Trump’s nominees to lead major Cabinet departments on Thursday, approving Alexander Acosta as labor secretary in a 60-38 vote following months of White House and congressional delays.

Trump’s first Labor nominee Andrew Puzder withdrew his name from consideration mid-February, becoming the administration’s first failed Cabinet nominee. Of the five most recent administrations, only Obama has taken longer to fill out his Cabinet, though Trump was only one day shy of tying that mark.

Just two of Trump’s Cabinet chiefs were approved on Inauguration Day, fewer than his three most recent predecessors. The process has been mired in procedural delays forced by Democrats in committee and problems in processing vetting paperwork. The White House also played a role in the delays, waiting to submit now-Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s nomination in March.

Of the previous four administrations, the median wait time between official nomination and full Senate vote (or presidential withdrawal) was just one day. Trump’s median was 25 days.

Because of Senate Democrats’ use of the nuclear option in 2013, the Republican-controlled Senate needed only a simple majority to force a vote to confirm Trump’s Cabinet nominees. In practical terms, that meant unless some Republicans defected, nominees easily cleared the necessary hurdles of the confirmation process.

Here’s how the confirmation timelines for the major executive department heads compare:

Trump’s transition team announced most of its Cabinet nominees earlier than his recent predecessors, but the confirmation process has been mired in delays.

Several of Trump’s wealthy picks had a complex collection of business interests to sort out with the Office of Government Ethics, though some had their Senate hearings before that paperwork was processed. Democrats have tried to slow the process, invoking arcane parliamentary procedure to force delays, and boycotting committee meetings to prevent votes.

Puzder’s nomination was felled by a mix of concerns about his business record, policy positions  and personal background. Among those were questions about his treatment of an ex-wife who once appeared in disguise on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” to discuss being physically assaulted and revelations about his employment of an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper.

[Democrats finally claim a scalp: Andrew Puzder. It’s only a consolation prize.]

Obama’s Cabinet took longer to fill than other recent presidents, stretching nearly his entire first 100 days. In an early showing of strength, Obama tapped former rival Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, though lingering animosities between their two camps created some problems.

The commerce spot was particularly fraught for Obama, who saw two of his nominees for the position fail. Obama withdrew his first choice, Bill Richardson, before Inauguration Day because of an ongoing “pay-to-play” investigation that an FBI background check found to be more serious than originally thought.

[Tracking how many key positions Trump has filled so far]

His second pick, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), withdrew on his own terms before being officially nominated or subjected to Senate hearings, an early harbinger of Obama’s inability to forge the bipartisanship he promised in his campaign.

“I'm sure it's not lost on anyone that we've tried this a couple of times,” Obama said when naming former Washington governor Gary Locke to the position. “But I'm a big believer in keeping at something until you get it right.” Locke was confirmed soon after his nomination was received by the Senate in March.

Health and human services secretary nominee Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader, also withdrew after the Finance Committee discovered his failure to pay more than $100,000 in back taxes.

George W. Bush’s transition got off to an uncertain start, as the result of the election was disputed and eventually decided by the Supreme Court. While challenges to the result stretched into December, the Bush transition team wanted to push ahead. It asked unsuccessfully for the General Services Administration to hand over $5.3 million in transition funding and the keys to government transition offices.

Linda Chavez, Bush’s pick for labor secretary, withdrew Jan. 9 — before she could be officially nominated — after revelations about her sheltering an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. Similar problems had plagued two of Bill Clinton’s Cabinet picks.

Because of the delay in the results, Bush did not name any Cabinet members until mid-December, but seven of them were confirmed on Inauguration Day.

Although all but one of Bill Clinton’s nominations were confirmed in the first two days of his presidency, the transition period was notably disorganized and unfocused. Clinton left little decisionmaking to his staff, and his pledge to increase diversity turned the selection of nominees into a slog.

But Senate Democrats, with a 57-43 majority during the confirmations, were able to approve the new president’s choices quickly. Only the attorney general pick stretched into the ensuing months.

That nomination to the nation’s top law enforcement position was a nightmare for Clinton, who saw two consecutive candidates forced to withdraw over questions about the hiring of illegal immigrants to provide childcare.

(Only the first, Zoe E. Baird, was formally announced. Clinton was on the cusp of announcing Judge Kimba M. Wood when the White House learned about an illegal immigrant she had employed as a babysitter.)

Ultimately, Clinton settled on Janet Reno, a Miami-area prosecutor with no children, and therefore, no “nanny problem.” In doing so, he fulfilled his hope of nominating the nation’s first female attorney general.

George H.W. Bush found himself in the rare position of inheriting the presidency from a member of his own party. He retained three of Reagan’s executive department heads for his Cabinet (Treasury, Justice and Education) and dozens of White House staffers.

Bush hit the ground running by naming James Baker, a former Reagan chief of staff and Treasury secretary, as his secretary of state on the morning after he was elected president.

Despite this advantageous position, and Bush’s extensive Washington experience, the transition team faced the difficulty of a Senate led by the opposite party, a situation unique among the four most recent presidents.

Bush’s team named John G. Tower, a former Texas senator, to Defense but questions about his business dealings, a drinking problem and his treatment of his ex-wife soon bogged down his nomination. Ultimately, the Armed Services Committee, which Tower once chaired, voted 11-9 against him, and the full Senate narrowly voted to reject his nomination. It was the first time the Senate had rejected a nominee of an incoming president.

Bush then named Dick Cheney, a congressman from Wyoming and future vice president, to the Defense post. Cheney was quickly confirmed, but the incident set Bush back in relations with Congress and embarrassed the administration.