how many senators does it take to approve attorney general

How many senators are needed to debate a nomination?

Sep 25, 2014 · He was approved by a 75-21 vote in the Senate, and his nomination and confirmation process lasted for about two months. One rumored replacement is Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was linked...

How many senators are needed to confirm a judicial nominee?

Sep 25, 2014 · He was approved by a 75-21 vote in the Senate, and his nomination and confirmation process lasted for about two months. One rumored replacement is Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was linked...

What positions require Senate approval to be appointed?

Feb 14, 2019 · Majority rule. The 54 senators voting “yes”, thereby confirming Barr as attorney general, represent 48 percent of voting age Americans, or 107 …

What happens if one senator does not agree on a nomination?

Feb 14, 2019 · The Senate on Thursday confirmed William P. Barr as attorney general by a vote of 54-45. Virtually every Republican, along with three Democrats, voted to confirm Mr. Barr.

How many Senators are required to confirm a presidential appointment?

[The president] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme ...Sep 17, 2021

Is the attorney general approved by the Senate?

The attorney general is a statutory member of the Cabinet of the United States. Under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution, the officeholder is nominated by the president of the United States, then appointed with the advice and consent of the United States Senate.

How many votes does Merrick Garland need?

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15–7 to advance Garland's nomination to the Senate floor, and on March 10, the Senate confirmed Garland's nomination by a vote of 70–30.

How does the Senate confirm Cabinet members?

The heads of the executive departments and all other federal agency heads are nominated by the president and then presented to the Senate for confirmation or rejection by a simple majority (although before the use of the "nuclear option" during the 113th United States Congress, they could have been blocked by ...

How many attorney generals are there in the US?

Term Limits. Of the 50 Attorneys General, 25 do not have a formal provision specifying the number of terms allowed. Of the 44 elected attorneys general, all serve four-year terms with the exception of Vermont, who serves a two-year term.

Who is the current AG?

Merrick GarlandUnited States / Attorney general

How long does the confirmation process usually take?

According to the Congressional Research Service, the average number of days from nomination to final Senate vote since 1975 is 67 days (2.2 months), while the median is 71 days (or 2.3 months).

Who appoints Garland?

On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died one month earlier.

Who is Merrick Garland's wife?

Lynn GarlandMerrick Garland / Wife (m. 1987)

What positions do not need Senate confirmation?

PA positions (approximately 400 positions): Presidential appointments that do not require Senate confirmation. These are senior-level positions, including jobs within the Executive Office of the President such as senior White House aides and advisors.

Which cabinet position is subject to Senate approval?

According to a Congressional Research Service report, these presidentially-appointed positions requiring Senate approval can be categorized as follows: Secretaries of the 15 Cabinet agencies, deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries, and general counsels of those agencies: Over 350 positions.Jun 3, 2021

How many Senators must agree to the Presidents choice for a cabinet position?

[The president] shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme ...

Majority rule

The 54 senators voting “yes”, thereby confirming Barr as attorney general, represent 48 percent of voting age Americans, or 107 million people.

Key votes

Democrats Joe Manchin, Doug Jones and Kyrsten Sinema voted to confirm Barr and one Republican, Rand Paul, voted against Barr.

How many jobs can the President fill without the Senate?

If you really want to work “at the pleasure of the president,” but don’t want to have to face the scrutiny of the U.S. Senate, there are more than 320 other high-level government jobs that the president can fill directly without the Senate’s consideration or approval.

How long does the Senate have to be in recess?

Noel Canning ruled that the Senate must be in recess for at least three consecutive days before the president can make recess appointments.

What is Senate Resolution 116?

Hoping to avoid those political pitfalls and delays in the presidential nominee approval process, the Senate, on June 29, 2011, adopted Senate Resolution 116, which established a special expedited procedure governing Senate consideration of certain lower-level presidential nominations. Under the resolution, over 40 specific presidential nominations—mostly assistant department secretaries and members of various boards and commissions—bypass the Senate subcommittee approval process. Instead, the nominations are sent to the chairpersons of the appropriate Senate committees under the heading, “Privileged Nominations – Information Requested.” Once the committees’ staffs have verified that the “appropriate biographical and financial questionnaires have been received” from the nominee, the nominations are considered by the full Senate.

How many positions are there on the Supreme Court?

Justices of the Supreme Court: 9 positions (Supreme Court justices serve for life subject to death, retirement, resignation or impeachment.) Certain jobs in the independent, non-regulatory executive branch agencies, like NASA and the National Science Foundation: Over 120 positions. Director positions in the regulatory agencies, ...

Which clause of Article II gives the President the power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess

Specifically, the third clause of Article II, Section 2 grants the president the power to “fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.”.

Can the President make appointments without the Senate?

The courts have held that this means that during times the Senate is in a recess, the president can make appointments without the need for Senate approval. However, the appointee must be approved by the Senate by the end of the next session of Congress, or when the position becomes vacant again.

Who is Robert Longley?

Presidential Appointments Requiring Senate Approval. Robert Longley is a U.S. government and history expert with over 30 years of experience in municipal government and urban planning. What a compliment! The President of the United States has named you to fill a top-level government position, maybe even a Cabinet-level job.

Who is the attorney general nominee for Biden?

Merrick Garland, President Biden's nominee for U.S. attorney general, speaks in Wilmington, Del., on Jan. 7. Most people know Judge Merrick Garland for what didn't happen to him. Five years ago, the Senate never acted on his nomination to the Supreme Court. This week, that will change, as a new chapter begins in Garland's lifelong commitment ...

Who is the Supreme Court nominee for 2016?

In 2016, Judge Merrick Garland was President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. Five years later, he is President Biden's pick to lead the Justice Department.

How many people died in the Oklahoma bombing?

On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb tore apart the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick remembers watching that day, with Garland at her side. "He basically said, while watching children being pulled out of the wreckage, that he had to go," Gorelick said.

What did Garland do after the Watergate scandal?

In those years after the Watergate scandal, department leaders struggled to separate partisan influence from law enforcement and establish new boundaries for the FBI.

Is the Justice Department still reeling from the Trump years?

The Justice Department is still reeling from political scandals from the Trump years — and racing to neutralize the threat from homegrown, violent extremists who participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Over a legal career that spans 44 years, Garland has confronted those kinds of problems before.

Is Garland a moderate?

Just about the only criticism Garland's nomination has drawn is in the area of civil rights, where his record is less robust. "Garland is a moderate, so I don't see him as the bold and visionary leader on racial justice that some people were hoping for," said Georgetown's Butler.

How long does a Senate nomination have to be on the executive calendar?

The nomination must be on the Executive Calendar for more than one day before it can make it to the Senate floor for consideration. Unanimous consent of the time and date for debate must be agreed upon by all senators. If even one senator does not agree, a hold is placed on the nomination.

How does the Senate process start?

The process begins when the president provides a written nomination to the Senate, where it is read on the floor and assigned a number. This starts the Senate's procedure of " Advice and Consent " laid out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution for the appointment of high ranking officials by the president.

What is PAS in the Senate?

All presidential appointments requiring Senate confirmation (PAS) must follow the appointment confirmation process before taking office. Although the number of PAS positions varies by administration, it typically includes all executive department secretaries, undersecretaries, and inspectors general. Some roles in independent agencies and ...

What does the left column on the Senate committee mean?

The left column indicates the Senate committee, and the right indicates the federal departments and administrations over which the committee has jurisdiction. For more information on each committee, follow the link in the left column. Jurisdictions of Senate committees in presidential appointment confirmation. U.S. Senate committee. Jurisdiction.

What happens after the Senate votes on a nomination?

Following a vote of cloture, the Senate conducts a simple majority vote on whether to confirm, reject, or take no action on the nomination.

What agency does a nominee go through?

A chosen nominee then must pass through a series of investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, the Office of Government Ethics and an ethics official from the agency to which the position is assigned.

Who was the secretary of commerce in 1945?

Only one cabinet position since 1945 has been confirmed by the Senate after being reported as unfavorable by a committee. Henry A. Wallace was confirmed by the Senate by a vote of 56-32 to become the secretary of commerce on March 1, 1945.