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Updated 9 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — What had appeared to be a near-certain chance of Betsy DeVos becoming President Trump's Education secretary took a hit Wednesday as two Republican senators said they would vote against her.
U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska delivered statements from the floor of the Senate saying they could not support DeVos' nomination, questioning her experience and commitment to public schools. If she loses the support of one more Republican — and all Democrats vote against her — the nomination will die.
Murkowski said she believes DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor and promoter of charter schools, has much to learn about public education.
“I have serious concerns about a nominee to be secretary of Education who has been so involved on one side of the equation, so immersed in the push for vouchers that she may be unaware of what actually is successful within the public schools and also what is broken and how to fix them.”
If all other GOP senators support DeVos, and all Democrats oppose her, she would end up with a 50-50 vote in the Senate and Vice President Mike Pence would have to break the tie to confirm her. The Senate voted, 52-47, on Wednesday to move ahead on the DeVos nomination, a party-line vote.
Despite their opposition to the nomination, Collins and Murkowski voted to allow the nomination to go forward. A vote is expected in the coming days.
Republican leaders said that they are confident DeVos will be confirmed.
“She'll be confirmed — you can take that to the bank,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the majority whip.
Meanwhile, Republicans jammed two of Trump's top Cabinet picks through the Senate Finance Committee with no Democrats in the room after suspending a rule that would have otherwise barred them from taking the vote. The tactic seemed a warning shot that they might deploy brute political muscle in the upcoming fight over the Supreme Court vacancy.
With a near-toxic vapor of divisiveness between the two parties across Capitol Hill, nasty showdowns broke out elsewhere as well. One Senate panel signed off on Trump's choice for attorney general only after senators exchanged heated words, and another committee postponed a vote on the would-be chief of the Environmental Protection Agency after Democrats refused to show up.
Busting through a Democratic boycott of the Finance panel, all 14 Republicans took advantage of Democrats' absence to temporarily disable a committee rule requiring at least one Democrat to be present for votes.
They then used two 14-0 roll calls to approve financier Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary and Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to be Health secretary, ignoring Democrats' demands that the two nominees provide more information about their financial backgrounds.
All the nominations will need full Senate approval.
“It's deeply troubling to me that Republicans on the Finance Committee chose to break the rules in the face of strong evidence of two nominees' serious ethical problems,” said the panel's top Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Republicans also advanced the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., for attorney general, and the full Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson as secretary of State, despite concerns about the former ExxonMobil Corp. chief executive officer's ties to Russia. The 56-43 vote, mostly along party lines, was by far the closest in at least half a century.
Several Democrats sided with Republicans, however, to approve Tillerson, including senators from states that Trump won during the election: Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent, and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia also supported Tillerson.
There is little Democrats can do to prevent final confirmation of any of Trump's picks because the GOP needs only 51 votes to approve them in the full Senate and there are 52 Republican senators.
With Tillerson, six high-ranking Trump nominees have been approved by the full Senate: Elaine Chao as Transportation secretary; retired Gens. John Kelly and Jim Mattis at the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon; Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA; and Nikki Haley to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
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