The Senate packed its schedule this week with confirmation hearings for five of President Donald Trump's nominees, racing to fill posts that have sat empty for months, some for nearly a year, as the August recess looms and the clock runs down on a backlogged executive branch.

The hearings, which the Daily Caller reported began Monday and stretched through Thursday, covered the top jobs at the Department of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Labor, the Pentagon's comptroller office, and the Director of National Intelligence. Every one of those positions has been occupied by an acting official or left leaderless while nominations stalled, got pulled, or were derailed by internal White House maneuvering and Senate Republican holdouts.

The result is a federal government operating on autopilot at some of its most sensitive posts, and a Senate majority that has struggled to move nominees through its own ranks even with a Republican president in the White House.

Clayton's long road to the Intelligence Committee

Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and Trump's pick to serve as permanent Director of National Intelligence, appeared before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday. It was a hearing that should have happened weeks ago.

Clayton's original confirmation hearing was scheduled for June 17. It never took place. Trump posted on Truth Social that Clayton's nomination would not move forward until Jamie McDonald, Trump's pick for U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, was approved first. Clayton was directed not to appear.

Sen. Tom Cotton, the Intelligence Committee chairman, confirmed the postponement on X that same day. His tone was diplomatic but unmistakable:

"It's regrettable that the president has directed Jay Clayton not to appear at his confirmation hearing today. Mr. Clayton is a patriot and a highly qualified nominee, as the president has said repeatedly. While today's hearing is now unfortunately postponed, I look forward to proceeding with his confirmation in the near future."

The delay carried real consequences. FISA Section 702, the surveillance authority allowing the government to collect and search American citizens' data without a warrant when those citizens are in contact with targeted noncitizens abroad, expired on June 12. Without a confirmed DNI, oversight of that authority and any reauthorization effort sits in limbo.

Senate Republicans have broadly praised Clayton. Sen. John Thune told the Daily Caller News Foundation on June 11 that Clayton was "a really good pick" who is "obviously very capable and competent." Thune added that he hoped "Democrats who are being objective about it are going to come to the same conclusion." Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, when asked about Clayton, sidestepped the question and said he supported "getting rid of Pulte", a reference to Bill Pulte, the acting DNI.

That Democrats chose to attack the placeholder rather than the nominee tells you something about Clayton's qualifications. The delay wasn't a Democratic obstruction play. It was an intra-Republican negotiation between the White House and the Senate over sequencing, a pattern that has slowed Trump's second-term staffing at several turns.

Blanche faces GOP skeptics on DOJ independence

Todd Blanche, Trump's nominee for permanent Attorney General, sat for his own hearing Wednesday. Blanche has been serving as acting AG since April 2, when Trump fired Pam Bondi. He spent 15 years at the Department of Justice in various roles before leaving to serve as Trump's defense attorney in three legal cases between 2023 and 2024.

His path to confirmation is not guaranteed, and the resistance is coming from within the Republican conference.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas posted on X on June 16 that he had a "positive interview" with Blanche but would not commit his vote. The sticking point: a tax audit involving Trump and his family. Cornyn wrote that Blanche "committed to further briefing on the tax audit issue involving President Trump and his family. I will not make a decision on confirmation until", the post was truncated, but the message was clear enough.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina went further. He said in June that he would not commit to supporting Blanche if there was "any hint" that the DOJ would not be independent from Trump's influence. That kind of language from a Republican senator signals genuine concern, not posturing.

Blanche also drew scrutiny over the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund included in the reconciliation package Trump signed into law on June 10. Senate Republicans had heated conversations with Blanche over whether those funds could reach January 6 defendants. Blanche testified before the House on June 2 that the DOJ had dropped the anti-weaponization fund, a concession that apparently didn't satisfy every Republican on the committee.

The total reconciliation package came to $69.5 billion. The anti-weaponization provision was a fraction of that, but it became a flashpoint for senators who wanted assurances about DOJ conduct going forward.

CDC without a director for nearly a year

Erica Schwartz, the Deputy Surgeon General and Trump's nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appeared before the Senate HELP Committee on Wednesday alongside Sean Kaufman, nominated to be Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS.

The CDC has been without a confirmed director for close to a year. Trump fired Susan Monarez in September after she refused to resign over clashes with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on vaccination policies. The agency has been leaderless since.

Trump's first pick for the job, Dr. David Weldon, withdrew his nomination in March 2025 after it became clear he would not survive a vote in the Senate HELP Committee. Committee members raised questions about Weldon's past statements questioning vaccine safety.

Schwartz represents a reset. But the gap itself, a major public health agency operating without Senate-confirmed leadership through an entire flu season, a summer surge cycle, and whatever else came through the door, is the kind of institutional vacancy that should trouble anyone who thinks government agencies ought to have accountable leaders at the top. The Senate has shown it can move quickly on high-profile confirmations when the political will is there. The CDC apparently didn't generate that urgency until now.

Labor and Defense nominees fill more gaps

Keith Sonderling, the acting Labor Secretary, was scheduled for his confirmation hearing Thursday before the HELP Committee. Trump appointed Sonderling after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned on April 20 amid a monthlong internal investigation by the Labor Department's inspector general. The investigation centered on allegations of misconduct, including workplace drinking and an affair with a subordinate.

Sonderling's hearing is straightforward by comparison. He has been doing the job. The question is whether the Senate will formalize his authority before leaving town.

Jay Hurst, formally Jules W. Hurst III, appeared Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Trump nominated him in May to serve as Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), the Pentagon's chief financial officer. If confirmed, Hurst would become the administration's first Senate-confirmed Defense Department CFO since Trump's second term began in January 2025.

That hearing carried an additional dimension. Iran strikes restarted Tuesday, breaking a 60-day ceasefire that began in mid-June. Hurst's appearance was expected to produce the first public testimony on the renewed strikes, a significant moment for a nominee whose portfolio covers Pentagon spending and financial oversight during an active military operation.

The Armed Services Committee hearing also covered nominations for Richard M. O'Malley as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Dr. L. Roger Mason Jr. as Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, and Dr. Erich D. Hernandez-Baquero as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration. Those are the kinds of posts that rarely make headlines but keep the defense apparatus running.

The bigger picture: a staffing problem that feeds on itself

Across five hearings in four days, the pattern is the same. A nominee is named. Something intervenes, a White House sequencing dispute, a prior nominee's withdrawal, a cabinet secretary's firing, an inspector general investigation, or Republican senators demanding concessions. Months pass. The acting official holds the seat. The confirmation hearing finally arrives with the recess bearing down.

This is not a Democratic filibuster problem. Republicans hold the Senate. The obstacles have been internal: math problems within the GOP conference, White House decisions to pull nominees from their own hearings, and the sheer volume of turnover in Trump's cabinet, Bondi fired, Chavez-DeRemer resigned, Monarez fired, Weldon withdrawn.

Every week a senior post goes unfilled is a week that agency runs on inertia rather than direction. Acting officials lack the political standing that Senate confirmation provides. They operate under legal time limits. They are, by definition, temporary, and everyone in their building knows it.

The August recess is not a hard constitutional deadline, but it functions as one. Senators leave Washington. Hearings stop. Votes stall. If these nominees don't clear their committees and reach the floor before the break, the vacancies stretch deeper into the year.

Senate Republicans have shown they can act with speed and unity when the incentive is right. The question now is whether filling these posts ranks high enough on the priority list, or whether the majority will leave town with half the cabinet still waiting for a vote.

A government staffed by acting officials isn't a government anyone voted for. If Republicans want to govern, they need to finish the job of putting confirmed leaders in place, before the recess gives them another excuse not to.