Greetings from Las Vegas, where I spent most of this week connecting with the Indy team, setting our priorities for 2025 and debating what the best journalism movie is — and whether The Devil Wears Prada counts as one (write in!). But while I might be on the West Coast this week, we’re focusing on Congress — and previewing the coming confirmation battles.
One of the most important responsibilities of the U.S. Senate is to “advise and consent” on certain presidential appointees. Made famous by the 1960 novel by Allen Drury, which is on my 2025 reading list, Cabinet nominees have to come to Capitol Hill for hearings and confirmation votes.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) will be part of the minority next year, and as such, likely won’t swing any decisions — President-elect Donald Trump can afford to lose three Republican votes on any nominee. But it’s their first opportunity to take stances on Trump policy via his personnel and question them on Nevada-specific issues.
The News of the Week: Confirmation fights
It’s instructive to look at how Nevada’s senators voted in the first Trump administration.
Cortez Masto was elected in 2016, and therefore voted on the 22 nominations that came through the Senate in January 2017. With Republicans controlling the Senate, each was confirmed — though the margins differed.
Cortez Masto voted to confirm 12 of the 22, tied for eighth-most among Senate Democrats at the time. Some of her votes against nominees — such as against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price — were also rejected by every single Democrat.
Others, like Labor Secretary Alex Acosta and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, were rejected by the majority of Democrats, save for Cortez Masto and a handful of red-state and swing-state Democratic colleagues.
Her most surprising “no” vote was against Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly. Cortez Masto was one of only 11 senators to vote against Kelly; at the time, she cited her concerns that Kelly would not protect undocumented immigrants. When Kelly resigned in 2017 to become Trump’s chief of staff, Cortez Masto, like a majority of Democrats, voted against confirming his replacement, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Once Rosen was seated in 2019, nine additional Trump Cabinet members came before the Senate. Of those, both Cortez Masto and Rosen voted for two of them (Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza) and rejected the other seven. In the second half of Trump’s term, Democrats voted en masse against most nominees, especially controversial ones such as Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe.
Although Cortez Masto (ever the lawyer) has said little about her thoughts on nominees, only saying that she takes the advise and consent process seriously, several Trump picks are likely to get no Democratic support. Those include defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth, FBI director pick Kash Patel (who moved to Las Vegas in 2023) and Health & Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latter of which Rosen has already indicated she won’t support.
On the flip side, Rosen said she would vote to confirm Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), a colleague, to be secretary of state, and told Politico she would probably support Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Her office confirmed to The Nevada Independent that she plans to oppose Hegseth, Patel, Kennedy and director of national intelligence pick Tulsi Gabbard.
The Nevada Angle: Lines of questioning
Cortez Masto and Rosen will get to make their mark on the nomination process through the hearings that come before the committees they sit on.
If her committee assignments stay the same, Cortez Masto will have the chance to question Kennedy, Treasury nominee Scott Bessent, Interior nominee Doug Burgum, Housing and Urban Development nominee Scott Turner and Energy pick Chris Wright.
She plans to ask Wright about his stance on storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, which she did with both Biden pick Jennifer Granholm and Trump nominee Rick Perry in years past. There are numerous Nevada angles she could take with Burgum, the current governor of North Dakota, including her advocacy to create a national monument at Bahsahwahbee, his interest in using federal lands for housing, the permitting speed at the Bureau of Land Management and speculative oil and gas leasing on Nevada lands.
Rosen, meanwhile, will see Hegseth, Commerce pick Howard Lutnick, Transportation nominee Sean Duffy and Homeland Security nominee Kristi Noem come before her committees.
Hegseth’s nomination has been embattled over reports of alcoholism and sexual assault.
For Nevada purposes, Rosen will likely ask Noem about protecting DACA recipients and TPS holders.
Rosen’s office said she plans to meet with Noem and Duffy before their hearings. She wants to push back on Trump’s mass deportation plan with Noem and discuss her support of DACA and TPS, and ask about border security, cybersecurity and antisemitism. With Duffy, she will emphasize how important travel is to the Nevada economy and go over the continued implementation of infrastructure funds.
The Impact
Nevada’s senators likely aren’t going to be the deciders on any nominees. But their lines of questioning will give us a clue into where their red lines are for the Trump administration.
Around the Capitol
⚠️Rosen’s NRC victory — With the Senate confirmation of Matthew Marzano to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday, Democrats now have a majority on the commission through 2027.
That’s meaningful for Nevada because the Democrats on the commission — including Marzano — believe in consent-based siting for nuclear waste, meaning Yucca Mountain would be ineligible as a waste repository because it doesn’t have state support.
With limited floor time before Republicans take over, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has focused on confirming judges. But Rosen raised the NRC vacancy issue with Schumer — and had her staff follow up — and Schumer found the time to schedule a confirmation vote.
🎖️NDAA on the way — The House passed an $895 billion defense bill Wednesday on a bipartisan basis that includes a number of Nevada-related provisions. Among them:
- $136.3 million for construction at the Nevada National Security Site and other military installations, including $25 million for the PULSE underground laboratory
- $18 million for military construction at Hawthorne Army Depot
💦In the water — Another big bipartisan bill, the Water Resources Development Act, passed the House Tuesday, having been negotiated by leaders in both chambers. Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) was able to ensure her Southern Nevada provisions were included in the final bill, after they were initially not part of the Senate version. Nevada-specific items include:
- Increases the federal funding cap for the Las Vegas Wash from $40 million to $60 million
- $10 million for water projects in Nye County
- $29 million for water needs in Laughlin
⛏️Good Sams — In another instance of agreement between Lee and Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), a bill co-sponsored by Lee allows “good Samaritans,” such as state or local agencies or nonprofits, to remediate abandoned hardrock mine sites. There are over 300,000 such mining-related sites in Nevada alone.
The bill, which already passed the Senate, passed the House Tuesday and is now headed to the president’s desk. It represents a major achievement for the bipartisan group of legislators, given that similar bills have died in Congress for over two decades.
What I’m Reading
The Associated Press: Proposed merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons is halted by federal, state judges
Victory for Attorney General Aaron Ford, Rosen and Democrats who made blocking this merger their political response to rising grocery costs.
The Nevada Independent: New forgery charges filed against Nevada fake electors in new jurisdiction
The year is 2065. Case Cannizzaro-Ring is governor. We’re still adjudicating these charges.
E&E News: Western governors urge restraint for Trump’s climate policy
Expect to hear “all-of-the-above energy strategy” quite a lot.
Notable and Quotable
“We stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard — to support President Trump in this vital mission.”
— A letter from 26 Republican governors, signed by Lombardo, on supporting Trump’s mass deportation mission, days after he had previously said it was “too soon to opine …… on the unknown”
Vote of the Week
S.4199 — On Passage: JUDGES Act
This bill — which passed the Senate unanimously over the summer — would expand the number of judgeships in the federal judiciary. It’s a long-awaited expansion given the high volume of cases judges in district courts see. But most Democrats are now opposed, given that it would give Trump the opportunity to appoint in these newly created positions. The bill will now go to Biden; it’s unclear if he will sign or veto.
AMODEI: Yes
HORSFORD: No
LEE: Yes
TITUS: No
