“Hiring gridlock” is one way to describe the more than 1,000 vacancies in the Trump administration. While many of these are at a much lower level, the No. 2 positions in several agencies and departments remain unfilled amidst apparent pushback within the administration. Of the roughly 1,110 or so Senate-confirmed positions in the executive branch, President Donald Trump has nominated just 35, according to a handy tracker from the Washington Post and the Partnership for Public Service. And only about half of those have been confirmed. The president has said some of the vacancies are intentional. But they include several deputy Cabinet secretaries and under-secretaries who could be key to carrying out his agenda.

Click the audio player above to hear the full story.