WASHINGTON - Elaine Chao, a former top U.S. labor official, was sworn in on Tuesday, Jan. 31, to lead the U.S. Transportation Department, which overseas aviation, vehicle, train and pipeline safety.
Other nominees to President Donald Trump's Cabinet didn't fare so well, though, with many coming under fire.
Senate Democrats postponed votes on several of Trump's nominees, citing their responsibility to do a "thorough vetting," while Republicans accused them of unreasonable delays in considering the picks.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee exploited Senate rules to delay until Wednesday a vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination to be attorney general. Democrats also boycotted a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee where votes had been scheduled on Steve Mnuchin to be Treasury secretary and Tom Price to head the Health and Human Services Department. Since at least one Democrat is required to be present for the committee votes to take place, no votes were held.
However, Chao, a former U.S. labor secretary and deputy transportation secretary, took office hours after the U.S. Senate voted 93 to 6 to confirm her.
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Chao, 63, will face key decisions on how to regulate the growing use of drones and automakers' plans to offer self-driving cars.
She will also be a key player in Trump's Cabinet if his administration pushes ahead with a major infrastructure spending program, as the businessman-turned-politician promised during last year's presidential campaign.
"Your leadership and your experience will serve well as the secretary of transportation, overseeing what we anticipate will be historic investments in our nation's roads, bridges, airports and above all in our future," said Vice President Mike Pence, who administered the oath of office to Chao.
The Transportation Department has a $75 billion annual budget and about 60,000 employees. It includes the Federal Aviation Administration, which handles air traffic control.
Chao, the wife of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position, also will have to decide whether U.S. fuel efficiency standards should be revised, as some automakers have sought.
Two other nominees faced delays Tuesday.
Billionaire philanthropist Betsy DeVos, already known as one of the most controversial nominees for education secretary in U.S. history, risks a rare congressional rejection.
The deeply divided U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday agreed to send her nomination to the full chamber for a vote, the final step in the confirmation process.
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But the committee's executive session showed DeVos faces choppy waters ahead for a post for which there is typically little congressional debate or public attention.
The chairman, Republican Lamar Alexander, acted as tie-breaker after all 11 Republicans voted for Trump's pick and all 11 Democrats voted against.
Two Republicans - Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski - expressed grave misgivings about the charter school advocate's limited experience with public schools. They said they voted yes only so the entire Senate can debate whether DeVos is the right fit. Murkowski said she may not support DeVos in the Senate vote.
Democrats said the nomination was rushed, with DeVos providing answers they described as vague and noncommittal to hundreds of written questions only 24 hours before the vote.
After many of Trump's nominees sailed through their confirmations in recent weeks, the names currently before the Senate were meeting resistance.
The Senate's 48 Democrats only need to pull three Republicans to their side to reject DeVos' nomination. Just nine nominees have ever been turned down by the Senate.
Public opposition to DeVos is unusually fierce, said Mary Kusler, lobbyist for the National Education Association, a large union that said constituents sent 1 million emails and placed 40,000 calls to senators decrying the nomination.
The U.S. Senate panel tasked with vetting Andrew Puzder to head the Labor Department has postponed its tentative plans to hold his confirmation hearing yet again, a move that some political strategists say could signal trouble for the fast-food executive.
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An aide for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions said the panel will not "officially" schedule a hearing "until the committee has received his paperwork from the Office of Government Ethics."
The committee had planned to hold Puzder's hearing on Feb. 7. Prior to that, the committee eyed three other possible hearing dates.
The nomination of Puzder, who is the CEO of CKE Restaurants, sparked protests by some CKE fast-food workers and the union-backed "Fight for $15" movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
George Thompson, a spokesman for Puzder, said Democrats and special interest groups were "obstructing President Trump's nominees" and that Puzder is "a proven job creator."
Puzder has criticized an overtime rule championed by the Obama administration and opposes raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Last week, workers at franchised locations of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, which are part of CKE's restaurant portfolio, filed a range of complaints, alleging wage theft and harassment, among other things.
