The US Senate on Tuesday easily confirmed billionaire professional wrestling tycoon Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration, filling another position in President Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Dozens of Democrats crossed over to join Republicans in greenlighting McMahon, the 68-year-old former World Wrestling Entertainment chief executive, by a vote of 81 to 19.
“Small businesses help drive America’s economy,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, adding that he was confident McMahon “will prioritize growing jobs over growing government bureaucracy.”
The vote marked the second straight confirmation that broke from the deep partisan rancor which has gripped — and dramatically slowed — the confirmation process.
Veterans Administration director David Shulkin was confirmed late Monday in a unanimous vote of 100-0, minutes after a more difficult confirmation of controversial Wall Street investor Steven Mnuchin to be US Treasury secretary.
McConnell took aim at his Democratic rivals, calling their obstruction unprecedented and saying the confirmation of Trump’s nominees has become “the slowest in modern history.”
Nine out of the cabinet’s 15 members are now in place, while three of the seven positions that hold cabinet rank have been filled: McMahon, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Hailey, and White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
In a bid to speed up the confirmation process, McConnell has filed procedural motions toward Senate votes on six more cabinet posts, including congressman Mick Mulvaney to head the White House budget office and Wilber Ross for commerce secretary.
McMahon’s ties to Trump are the oddest of the lot: at the culmination of a staged feud, Trump once body-slammed her husband, legendary wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.
The WWE grew from modest beginnings to a publicly traded global enterprise with several hundred employees in offices worldwide. WWE says it reaches more than 650 million homes in 25 languages.
The Small Business Administration is responsible for supporting America’s 28 million small businesses, which employ around half the country’s private-sector workforce.
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