“As it stands today, the Senate has confirmed 18 cabinet or cabinet-level nominations for the Trump administration. That will put us at the fastest rate in getting nominees through the Senate confirmation process since 2001. We’re encouraged with how that has been going. We owe that to our colleagues, who have been willing to step up and are very committed to getting them across the finish line, despite, I might add, a lot of Democrat resistance. They’ve tried to make it hard, but as we just continue to grind through the process, we’ve been successful in getting 18 done and tomorrow we’ll do Kash Patel, and we have a couple more that we’ll tee up for next week.
With regard to legislation, I think as you all know, Senator Graham and the Budget Committee last week reported out a budget resolution, and I thank them for doing that. That tees up an opportunity for us to move that across the floor. And as you all know, that unlocks budget reconciliation, which will follow from it. This particular budget resolution, I think as you know, addresses the President’s top priority, which is securing the border, implementing and putting in place his immigration policies, rebuilding our military, and creating energy dominance for this country. So, it’s focused on those three things: the border, national security, and energy.
The House, as you know, is working on a different budget resolution, and we certainly wish them all the success in moving it. We will work closely with them. More power to them. What they’re trying to do is get the tax piece of this done and done quickly. And obviously, we all want to see the President’s tax priorities addressed, which is making not only the 2017 tax cuts permanent but also making them permanent. And that’s certainly the priority for most, if not all, of the Republican senators here in our conference as well. So, we will continue to work together in a way that ultimately gets us across the finish line and helps put the President’s agenda in place. As I said before, I think those priorities are very, very clear, as outlined in our budget resolution and coupled with what the House is doing. I think we’re on a good track to achieve success, and if we achieve success, that’s going to be a good thing not only for the President but for this country.”