Senate Confirms More Trump Cabinet Picks
1 day ago
The U.S. Senate has confirmed Kelly Loeffler, a Georgia businesswoman and former senator, to lead the Small Business Administration. The Senate approved Loeffler on a 52-46 vote Wednesday. At SBA, Loeffler will oversee an entity responsible for helping businesses satisfy debts, payroll and other expenses during times of disaster. Loeffler co-chaired Trump's second inaugural committee and served in the Senate during the last year of his first term. During her brief stint on Capitol Hill, the former WNBA owner and executive was the Senate’s wealthiest member. She is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly traded firm that owns the New York Stock Exchange.
The Senate has also confirmed wealthy financier Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary. The confirmation vote Tuesday puts Lutnick in charge of the Commerce Department, where he will oversee 50,000 employees who do everything from collecting economic statistics to running the census to issuing weather reports. But he’s likely to spend a lot of time managing the president’s aggressive plans to impose import taxes on U.S. trading partners. At his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnick dismissed as “nonsense″ the idea that tariffs contribute to inflation. He expressed support for deploying across-the-board tariffs ”country by country" to strong-arm other countries into lowering barriers to American exports.
The Senate has also confirmed wealthy financier Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary. The confirmation vote Tuesday puts Lutnick in charge of the Commerce Department, where he will oversee 50,000 employees who do everything from collecting economic statistics to running the census to issuing weather reports. But he’s likely to spend a lot of time managing the president’s aggressive plans to impose import taxes on U.S. trading partners. At his confirmation hearing last month, Lutnick dismissed as “nonsense″ the idea that tariffs contribute to inflation. He expressed support for deploying across-the-board tariffs ”country by country" to strong-arm other countries into lowering barriers to American exports.
