The U.S. Senate voted 53-46 on March 13 to confirm Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Neomi Rao to replace Brett Kavanaugh on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. All Republican senators voted in favor of Rao while all Democratic senators opposed her confirmation.

President Trump nominated Rao to the D.C. Circuit seat, which was vacated by Brett Kavanaugh following his confirmation to the United States Supreme Court, on November 13, 2018. Prior to joining the Trump administration as the administrator of OIRA in July 2017, Rao worked as an associate professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, where she founded the Center for the Study of the Administrative State. She also served as counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary under U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R), as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and as a special assistant and associate counsel to former President George W. Bush (R).