Still Vacant Appointments Threaten Trump's Agenda

During his first week in office, President Donald Trump upended U.S. trade policy, directed officials to begin making plans to build a wall on the southern border and ordered an investigation into vote fraud, all with the stroke of a pen.

But experts warn the flurry of activity from the Oval Office could slow to a grind when it comes to the implementation of many of those plans if Trump doesn't pick up the pace in selecting nominees for hundreds of appointed posts that fill out the executive branch.

"We're not talking about a small operation here — it's one of the biggest on the planet," said Terry Sullivan, the associate director of the White House Transition Project, of the size of the U.S. federal government. "When you don't have people at the helm that means things could run aground."

More than 1,100 executive branch positions are subject to Senate approval; about 700 of those were deemed crucial by the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service. Those include cabinet secretaries, deputy and assistant secretaries, heads of agencies and other management and leadership positions. Trump has so far announced nominees for 33 of the 700 positions; four of those nominees have been confirmed, according to a Washington Post tracker.

It's a pace that's only slightly slower than his predecessors, Sullivan said, but "that gap is probably going to continue to widen — and as it widens, that means the government is probably not standing up."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/still-vacant-appointments-threaten-trumps-agenda/ar-AAmnP2j?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp