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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, government watchdog Accountable.US released a new report detailing how the significant obstructionism conservatives in Congress have leveled against the Biden administration’s nominees follows an indefensible pattern of racial and gender bias. Even when not accounting for race or gender, Biden’s nominees from his first year in office faced a historically long confirmation process, taking 103 days on average to get confirmed and facing a confirmation rate of 55%, the lowest of any recent President. 

Following an in-depth look at 11 of Biden’s nominees as case studies, Accountable.US identified a larger trend of conservative senators and groups focusing on their most consistent and dishonest attacks against nominees who are women and people of color. This concerted conservative opposition has proven effective with Biden’s female nominees and nominees of color having significantly longer confirmation battles than their white male counterparts.

“

Conservatives in the Senate have reached a new low in obstruction under the Biden administration, from slow walking confirmation processes to running outright smear campaigns against qualified nominees, the Biden administration now has a lower confirmation rate than his immediate predecessors. The coordinated conservative opposition focuses its most baseless conspiratorial rhetoric on nominees who are people of color and women. These case studies will shine a light on the sexist, racist, baseless and just plain bad faith attacks that Biden's nominees have had to endure in the Senate."

Kayla Hancock, Director of Power and Influence at Accountable.US

Key Trends Covered in the Case Studies:  

  • Department of Justice – the confirmation process went 60% faster for white nominees compared to nonwhite nominees.
  • Department of Commerce – on average, white nominees received hearings 20 days sooner than nonwhite nominees and received confirmation votes nearly 50 days sooner.
  • Department of Energy – male nominees received confirmation hearings twice as fast as their female counterparts, and were confirmed an average of 46 days faster.
  • Department of Interior – male nominees received confirmation hearings twice as fast as their female counterparts. The sole white male nominee received one of the fastest confirmations of any of Biden’s nominees at 63 days while multiple key female nominees waited well over 200 days without receiving a confirmation vote. took over 200 days to confirm. 
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