Lawmakers Hope Appointment Process Gets Streamlined

This week, Congress approved legislation to fast track some executive branch nominees that were bottled up in Congress. Even so, lawmakers in the region are still hoping for further reforms.

This is one of the most hyper-partisan Congresses of all time and that's left many key posts in the Obama Administration unfilled. But this week, lawmakers quietly approved legislation that removes the Senate confirmation requirement for around 170 executive branch officials, meaning many federal workers in the region are about to get some new supervisors.

Virginia Democrat Gerry Connolly says it's a step in the right direction. "Anything we can do to streamline the process so that whoever is president can fill his administration or her administration with qualified candidates is a good thing for the country."

But some executive branch nominees will continue to linger for months and months. Both parties delay the other party's nominees in order to effectively kill their chances of being confirmed. Connolly says that needs to change.

"People are at least entitled, it seems to me, to an up or down vote in most circumstances," says Connolly.

About 1,000 government positions continue to require Senate confirmation and about a quarter of the time those posts are filled by acting officials or left empty.