The Office of Government Ethics says some Trump appointees haven’t even submitted draft disclosure reports, limiting the ability of senators to fully question them during hearings.
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Among those missing were two billionaires: charter school advocate Betsy DeVos, the Education secretary nominee up for a Wednesday hearing; and investor Wilbur Ross, the Commerce secretary pick set for Senate questioning on Thursday.
Several Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, have said they will scrutinize Trump’s cabinet picks for potential conflicts of interest. It would “be cause for alarm”, Shaub added, “if the Senate were to go forward with hearings on nominees whose reports OGE has not certified”.
In that regard, the lack of information is a predictable outcome of Trump’s nominations, and the Republicans who control the Senate should acknowledge the harmful effect that has on their ability to meet their constitutional obligation to advise and consent.
John Kelly, picked to lead the Department of Homeland Security, is expected to have one of the easier paths to confirmation. Neither man is almost as wealthy as Ross or DeVos. The charity, the American Kidney Fund, said it had also been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney for the District of MA.
“We should put all of these on hold until the background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the ethics office reports are completed”, he told the Washington Post. They reveal that Carson’s wealth is derived largely from speaking fees and book sales.
The concerns came in a Friday letter from Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who was responding to questions from top Democrats in the Senate.
This packed schedule has been criticized as a strategy to distract the public and lawmakers, “preventing any one nominee from dominating a news cycle”, according to a piece in the Washington Post. Tillerson’s business-friendly relationship with Russian Federation, specifically Vladimir Putin, is widely believed to present a potential conflict of interest while Sessions has already submitted paperwork that omits decades of his career – including when he was denied a federal judgeship for being deemed too racist.
Much of the material reflects routine transition preparation, including ethics guidance, trainings and tutorials on how to file financial disclosures required by federal law. “It’s not supposed to be an adversary”. Barring a bombshell revelation during the hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sessions will probably be the next attorney general.
Crowley has been named Trump’s director of communications for the White House’s National Security Council.
McConnell said he’s intent on confirming nominees beginning on Inauguration Day to ensure that Trump has key personnel in place at the start of his administration. Democrats plan to scrutinize the Alabama Republican’s record on civil rights.
To recap how Senate confirmation works, all officials who are “cabinet-level”, which includes hundreds of officials ranging from the Secretary of State to the Ambassador of the United Nations, must be “confirmed” by the Senate before they’re allowed to take their posts.
“It will be very hard for us to stop any of these nominations”, Sen.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said Obama and the Democrats “have gone to war with their enemies, finally”. But this scenario seems very unlikely.
He said Democrats who want to bog down the confirmations need to “grow up here and get past that”.
A copy of the letter also was provided to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.
McConnell concluded that even if a plan to replace the ACA has not been produced, repeal can not be delayed because “The status quo is simply unacceptable… if Hillary Clinton had been elected, we’d be revisiting Obamacare”.
Experts agreed that holding hearings without the OGE reviews would be a marked departure from common practice.
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“We’ve had six years of opportunities to work together on a bipartisan basis to improve or change the Affordable Care Act”, Democratic Sen. “Our requests are eminently reasonable, shared by leaders of both parties”, Schumer tweeted on Monday.
