Senate Approves Dozens of Trump Picks, Trimming Down Backlog

The Senate confirmed dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees Monday night, the first time this year Republicans used the new multi-step floor process to package together a broad array of administration officials.

The Senate voted 46-43 to approve 49 of the president’s nominees. It’s the fourth big tranche of confirmations since Republicans changed the process to allow nominees to be grouped together to get around Democrats’ objections and use of Senate procedure to slow down approvals. The batch includes US attorneys, ambassadors, marshals, the deputy administrator of NASA, and assistant secretaries for the departments of Transportation, State, Defense and Commerce. ...