Who Will Be Acting Secretary of State Pending Rex Tillerson’s Confirmation? (Updated)
WaPo reported that Republicans want most Trump Cabinet confirmation votes to occur on Inauguration Day. However, Democratic senators reportedly are planning to aggressively target eight of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees in the coming weeks and are pushing to stretch their confirmation votes into March. WaPo notes that this would be “an unprecedented break with Senate tradition.” The targeted nominees include Rex Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State.
The third Secretary of State Timothy Pickering initially served as Acting Secretary of State from August 20, 1795 to December 10, 1795 under President George Washington. He was appointed as ad interim Secretary of State on August 20, 1795, and elevated to the position of Secretary of State on December 10, 1795. It was one of the longest stints in an acting capacity for the State Department.
Since then, several individuals have served as Acting Secretary of State ranging in tenure from a couple of days to a couple of months. Career diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger served in an acting capacity from August 23, 1992 to December 8, 1992 under President G.H.W. Bush. Michael Armacost also served in an acting capacity for six days in 1989 under President G.H. W. Bush while Walter J. Stoessel Jr served from July 5-16, 1982 under President Reagan. More recently, however, the appointment in an acting capacity spans no more than a few days. Frank G. Wisner served one day as Acting Secretary of State in January 20, 1993 under President Clinton. Before Warren Christopher was appointed 63rd Secretary of State, he was previously appointed Acting Secretary of State for five days in May 1980 under President Carter. During the transition from Bush to Obama in 2009, career diplomat William Joseph Burns served as Acting Secretary of State from January 20-21, 2009.
Read More At: https://diplopundit.net/2017/01/03/who-will-be-acting-secretary-of-state-pending-rex-tillersons-confirmation/
Good subject but they swerve into a lot of history and in the end, it's not that informative.
