Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) are blocking several of President Donald Trump’s nominees from being confirmed in the Senate.
The two freshman senators have blocked Ed Martin, Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, and nominees for top Department of Veterans’ Affairs leadership positions by invoking a hold — a procedural move that can delay the consideration of a nominee for days or weeks.
Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran and a member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, said he is “blocking all of Trump’s nominees to the VA until he stops his plan to fire veterans and the people who care for them.”
“This isn’t a hard ask,” he said. “Don’t screw over the people who put their lives on the line for our country.”
There are 13 Senate-confirmed positions at the VA. Two nominees, Secretary Doug Collins and Deputy Secretary Paul Lawrence, have already been confirmed. Trump has nominated five others for roles, while six have not yet received a nominee.
One nominee, Richard Topping, who was tapped to serve as the VA’s chief financial officer, is on the Senate’s executive calendar.
Gallego has strongly opposed the Trump administration’s cuts at the VA. The department plans to cut more than 80,000 jobs, according to the Associated Press. The Trump administration fired 2,400 probationary employees at the VA last month.
Schiff is blocking Martin, Trump’s controversial choice to be the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., after Martin helped organize the “Stop the Steal” movement, which claimed the 2020 election was rigged against Trump and advocated Jan. 6 rioters.
Martin, who refers to himself as “Ed the Eagle,” has been acting U.S. attorney for D.C. since Trump returned to the White House in January. He has since launched several investigations into prominent Democrats and dubbed himself “Trump’s lawyer.”
Some former staff in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C. have criticized him for dismissing prosecutors who handled cases involving Jan. 6 rioters. More than 100 additional former prosecutors have called for a public hearing to address his support for the rioters and his past allegations about the 2020 election.
“In every way he can, Ed Martin has demolished the firewalls between the White House and his own office within the Department of Justice,” Schiff said in a statement. “Confirming him to serve permanently in the role he has already abused in his interim capacity would cross the prosecutorial Rubicon that every single Senator would come to regret and that would threaten the rights of Americans from all walks of life.”
DEMOCRATIC ATTORNEYS GENERAL EMERGE AS SOME OF THE ONLY REAL RESISTANCE AGAINST TRUMP 2.0
“With all of the power I am afforded as a United States Senator, I intend to place a hold on his nomination and block attempts to jam through his appointment at every stage,” he added.
Schiff and Gallego’s moves come as Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) made history by holding the longest speech on the Senate floor, following backlash from grassroots Democrats that their congressional representation is not doing enough to oppose the Trump administration.