Sinking Biden nominees is avenue for GOP oversight in Senate: Schmitt

Senator Eric Schmitt, a freshman Republican from Missouri who campaigned on oversight of the Biden administration, said that the GOP was successful in its minority rule by preventing President Biden’s nominees. The Senate Commerce Committee, of which Schmitt is a member, has postponed the vote to consider President Biden’s nomination of Phil Washington to lead the Federal Aviation Administration abruptly. Furthermore, Schmitt cited Gigi Sohn, President Biden’s stalled nominee for the Federal Communications Commission, who recently withdrew her nomination to fill the fifth seat on the commission, as another example of GOP’s success without the gavel.

Republicans have been successful in their strategy of asking tough questions during committee hearings and persuading centrists to join them in resisting certain nominees, Schmitt said. Biden has several candidates who could face a difficult confirmation process, including Michael Delaney, who was nominated for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The pick faced concerns among Democrats and outside groups over his signature on a legal brief defending a parental notification law regarding abortions in New Hampshire. Julie Su, Biden’s pick for labor secretary, also faces questions about her more progressive record.

“If you’re examining the right sort of things and conducting oversight, people are persuadable on these things, especially on the nomination front,” Schmitt said in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “That is how we are getting the oversight work done.”