Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts voted to confirm each of the nominees on this page, and two of his votes decided the outcome: Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, confirmed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, and Todd Blanche as attorney general, confirmed 50 to 49. Hegseth then ran the Iran war, in which Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens of Bellevue, Nebraska was killed, and on February 5, 2025 Ricketts said, "We confirmed Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense."
Ricketts also voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department cut the CDC and canceled public-health grants in Nebraska and four neighboring states, which collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained; Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin, whose agents raided an Omaha meatpacking plant; Mehmet Oz, under whose rules Nebraska became the first state to start the Medicaid work requirement and over 1,000 people lost or were denied Medicaid coverage in four months; and Russell Vought, who directed federal layoffs.
Pete Ricketts's Cabinet Confirmation Votes and What the Officials Did
- Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes That Confirmed Pete Hegseth, Who Ran the Iran War. On January 24, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, and the vote was 50 to 50 with the Vice President breaking the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without him. On February 5 Ricketts said, "We confirmed Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense," and added, "We're not going to stop until we get the job done." Ricketts also voted to confirm Stephen Feinberg as deputy secretary of defense and General Dan Caine as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They led the war with Iran that began February 28, 2026, in which 21 service members have died and 865 have been injured, at a Pentagon-estimated cost of $43.6 billion.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Cut the CDC and Rewrote Vaccine Policy. On February 13, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, 52-48. The CDC lost 30%, or more than 3,800 employees, between March 2025 and May 2026. In June 2025 Kennedy fired and replaced all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the U.S. has reported nearly 3,887 confirmed cases of measles as of October 1, more than in any year since 1991, KFF reported in 2026. Nebraska and its neighbors that did not sue over the cancellations, Wyoming, Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma, collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained, KFF Health News found.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Homeland Security Leaders Whose Agents Raided an Omaha Meatpacking Plant. Ricketts voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security on January 25, 2025, Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection on June 18, 2025, and Markwayne Mullin as Noem's successor on March 23, 2026. On February 5, 2025 Ricketts said, "We confirmed Kristi Noem to be Secretary of Homeland Security." On June 10, 2025, Noem's agents detained more than 70 people during a raid on the Glenn Valley Foods meatpacking plant in Omaha. Nationally, nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention as of March 2026, and ICE recorded 31 detainee deaths in 2025.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Projects 2.3 Million Fewer People on Medicaid. On April 3, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 53-45. In June 2026 his agency issued the rule carrying out the Medicaid work requirement, projecting that "enrollment would be reduced by 2.3 million individuals in FY 2027". Nebraska started on May 1, 2026, becoming the first state to implement a key pillar of the law.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi and, With a Deciding Vote, Todd Blanche to Run the Justice Department. Ricketts voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025, Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025, and Blanche as attorney general on August 8, 2026, when his vote was needed. Their department indicted the President's critics James Comey and Letitia James in cases a judge dismissed, its January 2026 release of the Epstein files had thousands of redaction failures on behalf of nearly 100 individual survivors, and it terminated crime-prevention and victim-services grants initially valued at about $820 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Russell Vought, Who Directed Federal Layoffs and Canceled Funds Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Russell Vought as budget director, 53-47. His office directed agencies to plan large layoffs, and by August 2026 the government workforce was 264,000 employees smaller, a decrease of about 12%. His office also used a pocket rescission to claw back $4.9 billion in funding in August 2025, a method the Government Accountability Office says is not allowed: "The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind."
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Marco Rubio, Who Ran USAID as It Was Shut Down. On January 20, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Marco Rubio as secretary of state, and on February 5 he said, "We unanimously confirmed Marco Rubio to be Secretary of State." As acting head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Rubio oversaw its shutdown on July 1, 2025, after cancelling 83% of its programs earlier this year.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Commerce Secretary and Trade Representative Behind the Tariffs Still in Force. Ricketts voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary on February 18, 2025 and Jamieson Greer as trade representative on February 26, 2025. Their agencies' tariffs still in force include steel and aluminum duties raised to 50 percent and Greer's July 2026 tariffs on 60 economies, and the Yale Budget Lab estimated that tariffs under current law cost households about $1,100 a year.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Leaders of the VA and Social Security as Both Lost Thousands of Staff. Ricketts voted to confirm Doug Collins as veterans affairs secretary on February 4, 2025 and Frank Bisignano as Social Security commissioner on May 6, 2025. The VA was "on pace to reduce total VA staff by nearly 30,000 employees" in 2025, and by fiscal 2026 the VA Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System in Omaha designated 17 occupations as severe staffing shortages. Social Security lost 20 staff in Nebraska, 13 percent, from January 2025 to April 2026, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Agriculture, Education and Housing Secretaries Who Cut Their Departments. Ricketts voted to confirm Brooke Rollins at Agriculture on February 13, 2025, Scott Turner at Housing and Urban Development on February 5, 2025 and Linda McMahon at Education on March 3, 2025. USDA cut its staff by about 20 percent in 2025, Civil Eats reported; HUD went down to roughly 6,300 workers; and the Education Department's workforce fell from 4,133 employees to 2,183, the Hechinger Report found.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the EPA Administrator Who Repealed Vehicle Emission Standards. Ricketts voted to confirm Lee Zeldin at the EPA on January 29, 2025. Zeldin's EPA finalized its repeal of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for cars and trucks.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Civil Rights Chief Who Shrank Voting-Rights Enforcement. On April 3, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Harmeet Dhillon to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The staff of its voting section dwindled from approximately 30 lawyers down to about 6, the Brennan Center found, and the division moved to dismiss lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis police departments.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kelly Loeffler, Who Cut the Small Business Administration's Staff by 43 Percent. On February 19, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kelly Loeffler to lead the Small Business Administration. A month later the agency said "the agency will reduce its workforce by 43%", leaving fewer staff to process small-business and disaster loans.
What the Cabinet Officials Pete Ricketts Confirmed Did to Nebraska
- A Nebraska soldier. Sergeant 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42 years old, of Bellevue, Nebraska was killed in Kuwait in the first days of the war run by the defense secretary Ricketts's vote confirmed.
- Medicaid coverage. Under the CMS rule, Nebraska began the Medicaid work requirement on May 1, 2026, and over 1,000 people lost or were denied Medicaid coverage under the new requirements between May and August, Human Rights Watch reported, citing state data.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Cabinet confirmations
What is Pete Ricketts's record on cabinet confirmations under Trump?
Pete Ricketts voted to confirm each of the nominees on this page, and his votes decided two: Pete Hegseth at Defense, confirmed 50 to 50 with the Vice President, and Todd Blanche as attorney general, confirmed 50 to 49. The officials he confirmed ran the Iran war, cut the CDC and the VA, raided an Omaha meatpacking plant and wrote the Medicaid work rule that Nebraska was the first state to implement.
Did Pete Ricketts cast the deciding vote for Pete Hegseth?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Pete Hegseth on January 24, 2025, when the Senate split 50 to 50 and Vice President Vance broke the tie, so Hegseth would have lost without any one of the 50 yes votes. The Pentagon's inspector general later found Hegseth had sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information over the Signal app.
Did Pete Ricketts vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on February 13, 2025, and he was confirmed 52-48. Kennedy's department canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide, and Nebraska, which did not sue, was among five neighboring states that collectively lost 55 grants, with none retained.
Last updated: 2026-10-25