At least one democrat had vowed to fight President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, but today democratic party leaders indicated that they would allow a waiver and shortened debate over the popular pick to lead the nation’s military forces.
The waiver is required as Gen. Mattis has not been out of military service for the required 7 year period intended to maintain civilian control of the military.
Initially, democrat senator Kirsten Gillibrand had said that she would oppose the waiver for Mattis concerned that his four years away from the Marine Corps would not be sufficient to make him civilian enough to be the head of the armed forces.
Republicans headed off opposition by including the waiver and a shortened 10-hour debate window in a temporary spending measure which democrats have signaled they will not oppose.
The measure does preserve a required 60-vote margin to confirm Mattis even though Democrats had changed the rules so that only a simple majority was required in order to get Obama’s nominee’s through.
