Senate Democrats say their efforts to stall confirmation of Trump administration nominees is paying off after three hearings were delayed, and they plan to step up their resistance with a letter asking the President-elect to side with them for ethical reasons.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Senate Democratic leaders sent Trump a letter “calling on him to stand with us if he really cares about draining the swamp as he says he does.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he plans Inauguration Day votes to confirm “a significant number of nominees.” But Democrats argue that’s too fast, and Murray pointed to Trump’s tweet earlier this month criticizing a House GOP move to gut their independent ethics watchdog.
“President elect Trump led the retreat when House Republicans tried to eliminate their independent ethics office,” Murray said. “I am hopeful he will pull Senate Republicans back from the same ledge now.”
Senate Republicans have postponed three hearings planned for Wednesday in order to “accommodate the Senate schedule.”
Democrats are claiming victory after days of pushing for a delay in order to provide more time for the Office of Government Ethics to complete reviews of the candidates, for financial disclosures to be provided, and FBI background checks completed.
“We took a big step in that directions when Republicans backed off their original hearing schedule,” Schumer said. “It’s a good first step and we have more to go.”
Republicans postponed the confirmation hearing of Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, whose financial holdings, Democrats insist, present a potential conflict of interest. A hearing to grill Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, Trump’s pick to head the CIA, was pushed to Thursday, and a confirmation hearing for Labor pick Andrew Puzder may move from Jan. 17 until February.
Democrats have complained that Wednesday’s initial schedule of six confirmation hearings, coupled with potentially dozens of budget votes, was unfair and amounted to “jamming” through nominees.
There is little Democrats can do to stall nominees and they cannot block them thanks to a change in the rules carried out by their own party in 2013 that allows a simple majority to confirm executive branch nominees.
“It is still my hope that regardless of the hearing schedule some of which has been moved slightly, we will be in a position to confirm a significant number of the president’s nominees on day one, in particular the national security team,” McConnell said. “We hope to get more of it if not all of it in place on day one.”
