WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday urged Senate Republicans to move quickly in the new year to approve Donald Trump’s nominees for key roles in his second administration, noting the president-elect needs an “aggressive Cabinet.”
It comes as some of Trump’s picks have been mired in controversy, sparking questions about whether some could face challenges in getting enough support from Republicans in the upper chamber for swift approval.
“We trust and hope that Senate Republicans will – and the whole Senate – will perform their constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on President Trump's nominees, and do that in a speedy, expeditious manner,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday during his regular House Republican leadership press conference.
The GOP speaker noted he spent the weekend at Trump’s resort in Florida (he also joined the president-elect at Madison Square Garden on Saturday for the UFC fight) talking about the legislative agenda for the new year, when Republicans will control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
“I met with President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance and their senior policy leaders, and there's no daylight between their agenda and what they envision and what we envision for the House,” Johnson said. “ And in order to accomplish all of that, the president needs an aggressive cabinet, and he has put forward some extraordinary nominees.”
Johnson has emerged as a strong defender of Trump’s choices to head key departments and hold other influential posts, even as some have been met with a touch of skepticism from others in the GOP. The Louisiana Republican, for instance, has held steadfast in arguing that the House Ethics Committee should not release a report detailing its findings from an investigation into former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who Trump tapped for attorney general last week.
Gaetz resigned from Congress after being chosen by the president-elect and Johnson argues releasing the report after he left the House would be a “terrible precedent” to set.
But some Republican senators have called on the findings from the sexual misconduct probe against Gaetz to be made available to them as they consider his nomination, even if they are not released more widely.
“I'll just say this about a number of the nominees that have been appointed: I think President Trump is looking for persons who will shake up the status quo, and we got a mandate in this election cycle to do that. The status quo is not working for the American people," Johnson said. "And so these are persons who will go in and bring real reform, a significant reform."
Meanwhile, the House Speaker on Tuesday also acknowledged President Joe Biden’s request to Congress for additional funds to help communities in the Southeast recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton. He said that the House would provide the resources that are “desperately needed” but did not directly address whether he supported Biden’s ask on Monday for an additional $100 billion in disaster relief money.
“So these communities can be rebuilt responsibly, and Congress has a role to play,” Johnson said of the cities and towns impacted by this fall’s powerful storms. “We'll be looking at all that.”
On the Democratic side, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., who was just reelected to another term as the House Democratic leader by his peers pledged on Tuesday to find areas to work together with Republicans in the next Congress while still pushing back "against any effort at extremism."