Trump playing catch-up to fill top government posts

WASHINGTON -- With Senate confirmation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Donald Trump filled another post in his new government. Only 685 to go.

In his third week in office, Trump's young government remains a work in progress, with hundreds of empty desks in agency offices across Washington. While the president has criticized Democrats for the delays, he also shares at least part of the blame for moving more slowly than his predecessor to submit vetting information and paperwork for his nominations.

A tally of appointments and unfilled posts illustrates the daunting challenge facing any new president. Through Wednesday, Trump's team has nominated 35 people to fill 693 high-level positions that require Senate confirmation, according to data maintained by the Partnership for Public Service.

At this stage in 2009, then-President Barack Obama's administration had nominated 38 officials in all.

Sessions was the eighth member of Trump's administration to be confirmed; at this point eight years ago, Obama had 23 officials confirmed, including department heads and deputies.

In total, there are 1,200 positions that require Senate confirmation and about 4,100 appointed positions, according to the partnership. Many of the positions are still vacant, leaving the federal government in the hands of acting leaders and career employees who often stay in their jobs regardless of political affiliation.

"It's not as if the government stops because these appointees are not in place. There are acting people in these jobs," said Max Stier, the partnership's president and CEO. "But they're acting. They don't have the imprimatur of the president. They're not thinking about the long-term."

The delays have forced Trump's administration to be reliant upon a number of holdovers who played prominent roles in the Obama administration, leading to suspicions of the federal bureaucracy.

In the most prominent example, Trump fired acting attorney general Sally Yates, a career prosecutor and Democratic appointee, after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.

Other holdovers are awkward, too. Among the 50 Obama officials asked to stay on to help with continuity was Brett McGurk, the U.S. special envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition. Trump spent his campaign blasting the strategy McGurk helped devise and publicly defend.