Nominations for cabinet positions are submitted by the President to the Senate for its consent, pursuant to Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution.

It takes a simple majority vote to confirm the appointments – 51 Senators. In the current 107th Congress, there are 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. The Vice President of the United States serves as President of the Senate and is empowered by the Constitution to break any ties. As of January 20, 2001 that role belongs to Republican Dick Cheney, who can be expected to break ties in favor of the President's Cabinet choices.

However, all nominations in the Senate are subject to a filibuster – the practice of extending debate in order to prevent a final vote. Sometimes the elongation is meant to create more opportunity and time to develop arguments for or against a nominee in debate, but often filibusters are employed to block a final vote on confirmation in an attempt to force a President to submit a new choice. It takes 60 votes or more to break a filibuster -- by adopting a motion to cloture, or "choke off" the debate. In a 50/50 split Senate, 60 votes is a very difficult threshold to reach.

Hearings on cabinet nominees are held by the Senate committee which has jurisdiction over the subject matter portfolio assigned each specific cabinet department. To cite a few examples, hearings for the nominee for Secretary of Defense would be held by the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Secretary of Commerce nomination would be examined by the Senate Commerce Committee; the Attorney General designate by the Senate Judiciary Committee; and the Education Secretary by the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee.

Committees in the 107th Congress have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans serving on each. Under the "power-sharing" agreement negotiated by Democratic Leader Tom Daschle [D-SD] and Republican Leader Trent Lott [R-MS], and adopted by the full Senate on January 5, 2001, if a committee "ties" on any matter before it, either Leader can offer a motion to discharge the committee from further consideration and bring the bill or nomination to the Senate floor. Without this provision, under the regular order a tie vote would lose in committee.

After being discharged, the Senate would decide by majority vote whether or not to place the bill or nomination on the appropriate calendar for floor debate by the full Senate on the matter itself, and under the regular rules of order – which would still include the right to filibuster.