The U.S. Senate approved Maj. Gen. John L. Rafferty, Jr.’s promotion to lieutenant general and his appointment as the commanding general of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command.
Rafferty has more than 33 years of experience in leadership and technical roles, especially in field artillery operations and command and staff roles. He is currently the chief of staff at U.S. European Command in Germany.
Rafferty has held many important jobs in the past few years. He was the commanding general of the 56th Artillery Command in Germany, the chief of Army Public Affairs in Washington, D.C., the director of the Long Range Precision Fires Cross Functional Team in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the executive officer to the director of the Army Staff in Washington, D.C., and the commander of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
He has helped with Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, Spartan Shield, Inherent Resolve, and others.
Rafferty is taking over for Lt. Gen. Sean A. Gainey, who is leaving the military after more than 35 years of service.
Recently, Senate Republicans approved almost 100 of President Trump’s nominees. This is more than any other administration and even more than his first term.
A 53–43 vote on Thursday approved 97 of Trump’s picks. This was some of the last floor action in the Senate after a busy time led by Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., when Republicans took control of the chamber in January.
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Fox News said that Republicans were able to pass the president’s “one big, beautiful bill” despite disagreements within their party. They also reopened the government after the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
However, Senate rules made it almost impossible to confirm Trump’s nominees because Democrats objected to even the lowest-level jobs in the government.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said that Republicans started the year confirming Trump’s Cabinet at a breakneck pace, but then they ran into what he called “unprecedented obstruction from the Democratic minority.”
“We started the year by confirming President Trump’s Cabinet faster than any other Senate in modern history,” Barrasso told Fox. “And by the end of the week, the Senate will have confirmed 417 of President Trump’s nominees this year. That’s a lot more than the 365 Joe Biden had in his first year as president.
In response, Republicans used the nuclear option in September to lower the number of votes needed to confirm sub-Cabinet nominees. The Senate has since approved 417 of Trump’s choices.
Thune said that Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., were doing “nothing more than petty politics” by stopping routine fast-track procedures like voice votes and unanimous consent that are usually used to move low-level presidential nominations forward. Fox added that Thune said, “Democrats cannot deal with the fact that the American people elected President Trump, and so they’ve engaged in this pointless political obstruction in revenge.”
Senate Republicans have almost cleared up a backlog of nominations that grew to almost 150 over the summer with the most recent round of confirmations. There are only 15 nominees left.
Confirmed nominees include former Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., who will be the inspector general at the Department of Labor, and James Murphy and Scott Mayer, two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board. There are many more nominees from almost every federal agency. Before the night is over, senators should also talk about Joshua Simmons, Trump’s choice for CIA special counsel.
Senators are also trying to move forward with a huge spending package that includes five appropriations bills. Some Democrats, on the other hand, are against the so-called minibus, which makes it unclear if it will make it to the floor before lawmakers leave Washington.
Fox News reported that Republicans and Democrats were still talking on Thursday night. Thune said as he entered the Senate chamber that the most important thing was to at least clear the nominees package first. “We’ll see where it goes from there,” Thune said.
