Two-thirds of President Donald Trump’s cabinet secretary picks have been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as well as several other top administration officials that require a Senate sign-off. Kentucky’s U.S. senators have both voted to approve nearly all of Trump’s picks thus far, keeping to the party line including on some highly controversial figures.
Both Kentucky senators joined their party in confirming Russ Vought to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget. Several groups have protested his appointment, noting Vought is one of the architects of the conservative agenda known as Project 2025. Vought also served as the budget director during the first Trump administration.
Vought has long pushed for curtailing the independence of federal agencies, saying they should be loyal to the president rather than their institutions, and ending protections granted to the thousands of people who work as federal employees.
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in a clip obtained by ProPublica. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.”
Sen. Mitch McConnell did break party lines to vote against confirming Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. Two other Republicans joined in McConnell’s descent, requiring a tie-breaking vote from Vice President J.D. Vance to gain final approval. Hegeseth has faced sexual assault and public drunkenness allegations along with questions of financial mismanagement at two veterans' groups he ran.
The 44-year-old Army National Guard combat veteran and former Fox News host has no background in running a large organization.
In a statement, McConnell said, "Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been."
Both McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul voted in favor of confirming Trump’s other high profile cabinet picks, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Several controversial confirmations still loom, however. Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is on his way to securing confirmation after a party-line committee vote, as some express concerns over the former presidential candidate's history of stoking vaccine anxiety.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
