On Tuesday, July 31, the House passed S. 679: the Presidential Appointment Efficiency and Streamlining Act of 2011. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Chuck Schumer (D-NY), where it passed with a 79/20 vote, and went on to the Republican-controlled House where the leadership pushed it through, 261/116.

The HHS Organization Chart written in 2012 for 2013. (source HHS – see pg 6)
Al Kamen of the Washington Post reported approvingly (HT Mark Levin ):
The House Tuesday evening passed a measure to improve the clogged presidential appointee confirmation process by eliminating 169 jobs from requiring Senate approval.
The positions in that category, such as assistant secretaries for public affairs or for administration or management, are ones that rarely spark partisan Senate battles.
Mark Levin reported the event at about 8pm on his radio program. (direct link to MP3 here, or scroll to the 7/31/12 show, here; at about 75:00 ) He remarked that he learned from his experience in the Reagan administration that in many instances the assistant secretaries were “key” positions; Levin says “those jobs are no joke.” These are not posts that should be “streamlined.”
Levin reported that the Republican rank and file were told that the bill must pass because “Mitt Romney said, ‘support the bill.'”
For the record, here are how the House Republicans voted on this bill that will help the statist agenda (30 Republicans did not vote at all):
Yeas |
Nays |
AK – Donald “Don” Young AL 6 – Spencer Bachus AL 1 – Jo Bonner AL 2 – Martha Roby AL 3 – Michael “Mike” Rogers AZ 6 – Jeff Flake AZ 2 – Trent Franks CA 50 – Brian Bilbray CA 45 – Mary Bono Mack CA 44 – Ken Calvert CA 26 – David Dreier CA 24 – Elton Gallegly CA 2 – Walter “Wally” Herger CA 52 – Duncan Hunter CA 49 – Darrell Issa CA 41 – Jerry Lewis CA 3 – Daniel Lungren CA 22 – Kevin McCarthy CA 25 – Howard “Buck” McKeon CA 21 – Devin Nunes CO 3 – Scott Tipton FL 21 – Mario Diaz-Balart FL 25 – David Rivera FL 18 – Ileana Ros-Lehtinen GA 1 – Jack Kingston GA 6 – Tom Price IA 4 – Thomas “Tom” Latham ID 2 – Michael “Mike” Simpson IL 13 – Judy Biggert IL 10 – Bob Dold IL 14 – Randy Hultgren IL 11 – Adam Kinzinger IL 6 – Peter Roskam IL 18 – Aaron Schock IL 19 – John Shimkus IN 4 – Todd Rokita KY 4 – Geoff Davis KY 2 – Brett Guthrie KY 1 – Edward “Ed” Whitfield MI 4 – David “Dave” Camp MI 10 – Candice Miller MI 8 – Michael “Mike” Rogers MI 6 – Frederick “Fred” Upton MN 8 – Chip Cravaack MO 6 – Samuel “Sam” Graves MO 7 – Billy Long MS 3 – Gregg Harper NC 2 – Renee Ellmers NC 10 – Patrick McHenry NC 9 – Sue Myrick NE 3 – Adrian Smith NH 2 – Charles “Charlie” Bass NH 1 – Frank Guinta NJ 11 – Rodney Frelinghuysen NJ 2 – Frank LoBiondo NJ 3 – Jon Runyan NJ 4 – Christopher “Chris” Smith NV 2 – Mark Amodei NV 3 – Joe Heck NY 13 – Michael Grimm NY 3 – Peter “Pete” King NY 29 – Tom Reed NY 9 – Robert Turner OH 14 – Steven LaTourette OH 15 – Steve Stivers OH 12 – Patrick “Pat” Tiberi OK 1 – John Sullivan OR 2 – Greg Walden PA 15 – Charles Dent PA 7 – Patrick Meehan PA 19 – Todd Platts PA 9 – William “Bill” Shuster PA 5 – Glenn Thompson SC 1 – Tim Scott TN 8 – Stephen Fincher TX 8 – Kevin Brady TX 31 – John Carter TX 12 – Kay Granger TX 5 – Jeb Hensarling TX 3 – Samuel “Sam” Johnson TX 32 – Peter “Pete” Sessions TX 21 – Lamar Smith TX 13 – William “Mac” Thornberry UT 3 – Jason Chaffetz VA 7 – Eric Cantor VA 6 – Robert “Bob” Goodlatte VA 9 – Morgan Griffith VA 5 – Robert Hurt WA 4 – Doc Hastings WA 5 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers WA 8 – Dave Reichert WI 6 – Thomas “Tom” Petri WI 1 – Paul Ryan WI 5 – James Sensenbrenner WV 2 – Shelley Capito |
AL 4 – Robert Aderholt AL 5 – Mo Brooks AR 1 – Rick Crawford AR 2 – Tim Griffin AR 3 – Steve Womack AZ 1 – Paul Gosar AZ 3 – Ben Quayle AZ 5 – David Schweikert CA 19 – Jeff Denham CA 4 – Tom McClintock CA 42 – Gary Miller CA 40 – Edward “Ed” Royce CO 6 – Mike Coffman CO 4 – Cory Gardner CO 5 – Doug Lamborn FL 24 – Sandy Adams FL 9 – Gus Bilirakis FL 13 – Vern Buchanan FL 7 – John Mica FL 1 – Jeff Miller FL 5 – Richard Nugent FL 15 – Bill Posey FL 16 – Thomas Rooney FL 12 – Dennis Ross FL 2 – Steve Southerland FL 6 – Clifford “Cliff” Stearns FL 8 – Daniel Webster FL 22 – Allen West FL 10 – Bill Young GA 9 – Tom Graves GA 7 – Rob Woodall IA 5 – Steve King IL 16 – Donald Manzullo IL 17 – Robert “Bobby” Schilling IL 8 – Joe Walsh IN 8 – Larry Bucshon IN 5 – Dan Burton IN 3 – Marlin Stutzman KS 1 – Tim Huelskamp KS 2 – Lynn Jenkins KS 4 – Mike Pompeo KS 3 – Kevin Yoder LA 7 – Charles Boustany LA 3 – Jeff Landry LA 1 – Steve Scalise MD 6 – Roscoe Bartlett MD 1 – Andy Harris MI 3 – Justin Amash MN 6 – Michele Bachmann MN 2 – John Kline MN 3 – Erik Paulsen MO 8 – Jo Ann Emerson MO 4 – Vicky Hartzler MO 9 – Blaine Luetkemeyer MS 1 – Alan Nunnelee MS 4 – Steven Palazzo MT 0 – Dennis “Denny” Rehberg NC 6 – Howard Coble NC 5 – Virginia Foxx NC 3 – Walter Jones ND 0 – Rick Berg NE 1 – Jeffrey Fortenberry NE 2 – Lee Terry NJ 5 – Scott Garrett NJ 7 – Leonard Lance NM 2 – Steven “Steve” Pearce NY 25 – Ann Marie Buerkle NY 20 – Chris Gibson OH 7 – Steve Austria OH 1 – Steven “Steve” Chabot OH 18 – Bob Gibbs OH 6 – Bill Johnson OH 5 – Robert Latta OH 2 – Jean Schmidt OH 3 – Michael Turner OK 4 – Tom Cole OK 5 – James Lankford OK 3 – Frank Lucas PA 11 – Lou Barletta PA 8 – Michael Fitzpatrick PA 6 – Jim Gerlach PA 3 – Mike Kelly PA 10 – Thomas Marino PA 18 – Tim Murphy PA 16 – Joseph Pitts SC 3 – Jeff Duncan SC 5 – Mick Mulvaney SC 2 – Addison “Joe” Wilson TN 6 – Diane Black TN 7 – Marsha Blackburn TN 2 – John “Jimmy” Duncan TN 3 – Chuck Fleischmann TN 1 – Phil Roe TX 6 – Joe Barton TX 26 – Michael Burgess TX 23 – Francisco “Quico” Canseco TX 11 – Michael Conaway TX 7 – John Culberson TX 27 – Blake Farenthold TX 17 – Bill Flores TX 1 – Louis Gohmert TX 4 – Ralph Hall TX 24 – Kenny Marchant TX 19 – Randy Neugebauer TX 22 – Pete Olson TX 2 – Ted Poe UT 1 – Rob Bishop VA 4 – Randy Forbes VA 2 – Scott Rigell VA 1 – Rob Wittman VA 10 – Frank Wolf WA 3 – Jaime Herrera Beutler WI 8 – Reid Ribble WV 1 – David McKinley WY 0 – Cynthia Lummis |