The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics on Saturday accused Senate Republicans of rushing confirmations for nominees in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
In a letter to leading Senate Democrats, Walter Shaub, Jr., the ethics office director, said the busy hearing schedule had overwhelmed his office. He said it had not completed ethics screening reviews on several nominees, which he described as a concern.
“As OGE’s director, the announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,” Shaub wrote in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer(D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“This schedule has created undue pressure on OGE’s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews.”
The director of the federal Office of Government Ethics on Saturday accused Senate Republicans of rushing confirmations for nominees in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.
In a letter to leading Senate Democrats, Walter Shaub, Jr., the ethics office director, said the busy hearing schedule had overwhelmed his office. He said it had not completed ethics screening reviews on several nominees, which he described as a concern.
“As OGE’s director, the announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,” Shaub wrote in a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer(D-N.Y.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“This schedule has created undue pressure on OGE’s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews.”
Under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation must file financial and employment disclosures with the OGE, a process that Shaub said “is measured in weeks, not days.”
“This normally intensive process has been complicated by both the Senate hearing schedule and the announcement of nominees prior to consulting OGE for an evaluation of any ethics issues,” Shaub said in the letter. “In the past, the ethics work was fully completed prior to the announcement of nominees in the overwhelming majority of cases.”
Nominees under Senate consideration are required to file employment and financial disclosures under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, a process that Shaub said takes “weeks, not months.”
Four appointees have not yet filed disclosures with OGE, according to a Democratic Senate aide: Housing and Urban Development Secretary-designate Ben Carson, Education secretary pick Betsy DeVos, Homeland Security nominee Michael Kelly and Commerce secretary pick Wilbur Ross.
Kelly is scheduled to go before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday, while DeVos is slated to have her confirmation hearing Wednesday and hearings for Carson and Ross are expected to occur Thursday.
Senate Democrats have also indicated that they would seek to delay DeVos’ confirmation amid concerns of the billionaire’s financial entanglements. And while DeVos submitted her disclosures to the OGE last month, she is still in the process of completing the screening process, Politico reported Friday.
“We have received all of the HELP committee paperwork that is required to have a hearing on Mrs. DeVos. Our committee precedent is that we require the OGE paperwork to be submitted before the committee holds a vote on the nominee, not before the committee holds a hearing on the nominee,” a GOP Senate aide told The Hill.
The upcoming whirlwind of hearings isn’t the first time the Senate has pushed for such quick confirmations. In 2009, the Democratically controlled Senate confirmed seven of President Obama’s Cabinet picks in a single day. But a planned vote on Hillary Clinton’s nomination for secretary of State was put on hold after Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called for more financial information on the Clinton Foundation.