Trump Needs to Get Serious About Staffing Up

Donald Trump's slow start at filling the hundreds of vacancies in the executive branch are starting to have real effects, from uncertainty in the economy to insufficient capacity to run U.S. foreign and national security policy.

The Wall Street Journal's Brent Kimball documents the various regulatory agencies unable to act because they don't have a quorum, or other cases where vacancies will eventually give Republicans a majority but vacancies allow Democrats to retain their old majorities.1496678496702 Other departments and agencies are incapable of making policy because they haven't fully staffed up -- Treasury still has only the Secretary confirmed, although at least Trump has finally made a series of nominations for some of the other positions. Businesses that depend on a stable regulatory environment or need specific decisions are left in limbo, for who knows how long. The situation in foreign policy is similarly dire, as McClatchy's Vera Bergengruen reports.