patrick.net

The Senate cleared Steve Mnuchin to be President Trump’s Treasury secretary Monday evening, with one Democrat joining Republicans in approving the nomination.

The longtime Goldman’s executive was confirmed 53-47 and is expected to be sworn in later Monday night.

Democrats don’t have the manpower to block Trump’s nominees on their own, but they signaled early on that Mnuchin would be a top target of opposition.

They’re using the Senate’s procedural rulebook to drag out debate on most Trump’s picks for days, arguing they deserve higher scrutiny because of their vast financial holdings and business ties. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was the only member of the caucus to help Mnuchin get over a procedural hurdle during an early Friday morning vote and the only Democrat to vote for final confirmation.

Progressives immediately pounced on Manchin's vote. Adam Green, a co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, warned the Democratic senator—who is up for reelection— that he will hear from his constituents over the vote.

"Manchin's vote will not just hurt millions of people -- it will hurt Democrats in 2018. Democrats in red states will lose badly in the 2018 general election if they don't excite voters by standing up to Wall Street and big-money interests with backbone," he said in a statement.
Top Democrats, including Schumer, criticized Mnuchin in a press conference shortly ahead of the vote.

"President Trump told Steve Mnuchin -- a Wall Street insider with decades of experience in that board room he described -- ‘you’re hired,’ as my Treasury Secretary no less,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Monday. “That’s a broken promise.

http://thehill.com/policy/finance/319335-senate-confirms-mnuchin-as-treasury-secretary

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