With the Inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump scheduled for January 20, 2017, the United States Senate has begun scheduling confirmation hearings for his nominees to serve in the Cabinet. Hearings have been scheduled the week of January 9th for the Attorney General (Senator Jeff Sessions), Department of State (Rex Tillerson), Department of Housing and Urban Development (Dr. Ben Carson), Department of Transportation (Elaine Chao), and Department of Homeland Security (General John Kelly). 

Additional hearings will be scheduled over the next two weeks, in order to ensure the Cabinet is in place as quickly as possible after January 20th.   In total, President Trump has some 4,000 political positions to fill throughout the federal government, although the majority of them do not require congressional approval.  Regardless, it is a process that will take months to complete.