President Donald Trump on Friday said he would resubmit more than 20 judicial nominees to the Senate for confirmation, including his picks for federal judge positions in Alabama, Colorado, Louisiana—states the White House says “are suffering from judicial emergencies.”
The judge picks were among nearly 100 nominees that Congress returned to the White House late last year. At the end of a calendar year, the Senate must unanimously agree to roll over an unconfirmed nominee to the next year. If any senator objects, the nominee is returned to the White House and must be resubmitted for confirmation.
Lawmakers’ decision to return the nominees didn’t necessarily mean their confirmation prospects are in trouble, but it could mean a delay in filling the already historically high number of vacancies in the federal government.
The Senate agreed to keep about 150 of Mr. Trump’s nominees, according to an aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). Among those was Robert Weaver, Mr. Trump’s nominee to lead the Indian Health Service who appears to have misrepresented his work experience at a Missouri hospital in a document provided to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The nominees returned to the White House include several prominent ones, including Health and Human Services secretary nominee Alex Azar, Federal Reserve chairman nominee Jerome Powell and nearly a dozen State Department picks.
Many of these are expected to be renominated and confirmed.