Reporter’s Notebook: People are policy

It is that in politics, people are policy. 

So President-elect Trump’s “policies” descended on Capitol Hill this week. 

Thus begins the quadrennial tradition of various Cabinet nominees parading around the Senate. They’re here to meet with senators, answer questions, press the flesh, get a sense of what senators want to know about them in a confirmation hearing – and where the pitfalls lie.

We got a sliver of this before Thanksgiving. That’s when former attorney general nominee and former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., huddled with a handful of Republican senators. Then Gaetz bowed out, so it was on to Trump’s second pick for attorney general – Pam Bondi.

Bondi arrived at the Capitol Monday to meet with incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, but her first meeting was postponed because Grassley’s flight was delayed. They finally chatted later in the afternoon.

“I look forward to working with you and leading your nomination through the United States Senate,” said Grassley once he finally made it to his office in the Hart Senate Office Building.

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“Should I earn the trust and the nomination from all of the senators, I will do my best every day to work tirelessly for the American people. And I will make you, the President and our country proud,” added Bondi.

“Is this going to be easier than Mr. Gaetz?” asked yours truly.

“No questions. No questions,” ordered Grassley.

Bondi soon headed to the Russell Senate Office Building to caucus with the current top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

“She’s a great choice. Been a long time friend. I think right person at right time,” said Graham.

Bondi may have an easier path to Senate confirmation than the other nominee roaming the Senate corridors, Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth.

He met with Sens. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.

“We’re taking it meeting by meeting,” said Hegseth.

Hegseth faces a host of questions about whether he’s qualified to lead such a massive organization as the U.S. military. There’s been a blanket of allegations lodged against Hegseth.

“Were you ever drunk while traveling on the job?” asked Nikole Killion of CBS.

“I won’t dignify that with a response,” replied Hegseth.

He then proceeded to a series of sessions with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah. Hegseth appears to have earned the support of some of the most conservative members of the Senate.

“We don’t need a general officer, admiral or a person of high command,” said Tuberville. “We need a drill sergeant in the military. We need somebody to straighten the military out. Get the woke, the DEI affiliation out and go from there.” 

Hegseth was back at it Tuesday morning, meeting with Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., Ted Budd, R-N.C., Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and Eric Schmitt, R-Mo. 

Wednesday meant meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and the next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. 

Hegseth has also expressed reservations about women serving in combat. 

Colleague Aishah Hasnie pressed Hegseth on this very point as he toggled between Senate offices. 

“We have amazing women who serve in our military. Amazing women,” said Hegseth. 

“Do you think they should be in combat?” asked Hasnie.

“I think they’re already in combat,” replied Hegseth.

Amid all the focus on Bondi and Hegseth, United Nations Ambassador nominee and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., snuck in a meeting with Grassley. And Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent is also slated to meet with Thune and newly tapped Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo. 

Out of the middle of nowhere, Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon materialized for a session with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Tuesday. 

You think things are hitting a fevered pitch now? Wait until FBI pick Kash Patel and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. begin making their office calls. 

And we haven’t even gotten to the prospective confirmation hearings of Hegseth, Kennedy and Patel in early January. Cable TV channels will likely carry those hearings wall-to-wall. And depending on the day, it may be a challenging programming decision on which hearing to take live – especially if two or three all come around the same time. 

A dynamic duo arrives at Capitol Hill later this week – who don’t require confirmation. And in fact, their visits may command more attention than any of the nominees for the next cabinet. 

President-elect Trump tapped former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to run the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. They’re set to meet with House and Senate Republicans about their plans to pare back the government. They begin with meetings with Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who is leading the Senate’s DOGE Caucus.

“We have a lot of waste that exists in the federal government,” said Ernst. “We have over $1 trillion of savings already identified for the DOGE.”

Even Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., became the first Democrat to join the House DOGE Caucus. 

“I believe that streamlining government processes and reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue,” said Moskowitz. “The caucus should look at the bureaucracy that DHS has become and include recommendations to make Secret Service and FEMA independent federal agencies with a direct report to the White House.”

When it comes to confirmations, Democrats insist that Republicans do things by the book. They want background checks on nominees, and they’re also imploring the GOP not to allow Trump to bypass the Senate if there are problems and install people temporarily via recess appointments. 

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., took issue with the speedy meetings Republican senators had with nominees. Some of those sessions resulted in GOP senators then proclaiming they would vote to confirm.

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“You can’t do a speed dating process for the Cabinet of the President of the United States without ending up embarrassed and with things that are discovered only through a deep investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said Durbin, “I can tell you privately, many Republicans senators have spoken to me and said ‘For goodness sakes, we can’t do away with the FBI check.’ That is something that’s just integral to the system.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote to Thune, imploring him to preserve the Senate customs for confirming nominees.

“The advise and consent authority is a cornerstone of the Senate’s constitutional mandate. A power central to preserving America’s system of checks and balances. The Founding Fathers knew firsthand the great danger of allowing unchecked executives to appoint individuals to positions of power without any guardrails,” said Schumer. “Hopefully this doesn’t become an issue. But nevertheless, it will be the responsibility of the incoming Republican majority to protect the Senate against any attempt to erode its authority.”

So this is going to be quite a few weeks. 

Lots of meetings. Lots of hearings. Lots of votes. All surrounding staffing the next administration.

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Outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is fond of saying that the Senate is “in the personnel business.” 

It’s also in the “policy” business, and those “policies” are now walking around the halls of Capitol Hill.