Reince Tries Slowing Down the Executive Order Process

Donald Trump's most contentious cabinet appointee (so far), Betsy DeVos, is now the Secretary of Education. Her nomination cleared the Senate Tuesday afternoon after all 48 Democrats voted unanimously against her (along with 2 Republicans), resulting in a 50-50 tie that Vice President Mike Pence had to break in her favor. Read more from our own Alice Lloyd about the role liberal interest groups, particularly teachers' unions, played in marshaling all those Democrats and the two Republicans (Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins) against DeVos.

It was the first time a vice president, as president of the Senate, has ever had to break a tie over a cabinet nomination, and the first such tie-breaker since the George W. Bush administration. But the Trump White House is saying they're confident they won't need to rely on Pence to get through the rest of their nominees. Look out for Jeff Sessions for Justice, Tom Price for Health and Human Services, and Steve Mnuchin for the Treasury later this week.

Besides West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin's announced support for Sessions, no other Democrats have said they'll be voting on any of those three nominees, and the Trump administration feels sure there won't be GOP defections on them.

Slowing Down the Executive Order Process

Following the bumpy rollout of a few executive actions, a change is coming to the White House's internal approach to vetting and approving President Trump's future orders. In an adjustment led by chief of staff Reince Priebus and White House counsel Don McGahn, the process is slowing down a bit, allowing senior and mid-level staff more opportunity to understand and prepare for executive orders. "More streamlined and more efficient," is how one White House source explained the change.

A more precise description might be that it allows more people in the West Wing to see and have input on executive orders that have so far been run chiefly through the offices of senior counselor Stephen Bannon and senior advisor Stephen Miller. Bannon and Miller, the most ideologically aligned with Trump of the White House's senior aides, remain the center of power on crafting policy. But their fumbling of the travel restriction executive order has given Priebus the opportunity to open the process up. That's something several offices in the White House, including the counsel and the legislative affairs offices, have been angling for.