WASHINGTON — The Senate took the rare step of curbing its own power Wednesday, voting to no longer require Senate confirmation for 169 high-level federal jobs filled through presidential appointments.
Most of the jobs are second- tier Cabinet positions such as assistant secretaries and deputy directors that typically don’t inspire partisan wrangling. Nonetheless, the nominees often hang in limbo — and the jobs go unfilled — for months because their confirmations get drawn into other fights.
The bill, passed 79-20 and sent to the House, is part of a broader bipartisan effort to make the famously fickle Senate work more efficiently.
“There is nothing wrong with the Senate doing a little prioritizing of pending business,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a co-sponsor of the legislation with Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Critics said the bill only puts a bandage on the bigger problem of a mammoth government that should itself be trimmed.
“We’re moving to make it somewhat less accountable,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
The Constitution gives the Senate the power to confirm nominees.
The bill would remove the confirmation requirement for 169 of about 1,200 senior executive-branch jobs filled by presidential appointments.
Candidates for the confirmation-exempted jobs would still have to go through the same time-consuming background checks and complete financial disclosures for the White House vetting process but no longer would have to repeat the drill for the Senate, according to officials of both parties.
The Senate also was weighing a separate resolution that does not need House approval to streamline appointments for about 250 part-time positions, such as on advisory boards.
