BLT:
President George W. Bush urged the Senate today to confirm his nominees for more than 180 open judicial and agency positions. Flanked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and several other Republican senators, the president said the backlog places a “strain on our government.”
The president blamed the Senate for dragging its feet. “I have nominated skilled and faithful public servants to lead federal agencies and sit on the federal bench,” he said. “The Constitution also gives senators an important responsibility. They must provide advice and consent by voting up or down on these nominees. Unfortunately, the Senate is not fulfilling its duty.”
Among the unfilled jobs that Bush singled out were top economic positions — one at the Council of Economic Advisers and three at the Federal Reserve — and top legal positions — the deputy attorney general slot and three open seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
Some of Bush’s nominees do not sit well with many Democratic senators and watchdog groups, which is why the confirmation process has stalled. “It’s absurd for the President to nominate some of the most extreme ideologues possible to these powerful positions and then profess shock when the Senate refuses to confirm them,” Tanya Clay House, director of public policy at People For the American Way, said in a press release yesterday. “President Bush should show real leadership by working with Congress to find a workable solution. Instead he continues to thumb his nose at the Senate and the constitutional confirmation process.”
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