WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has a message for Democrats seeking to slow down Donald Trump’s cabinet confirmation hearings: “grow up.”
Democrats, led by Sen. Chuck Schumer, are pressing to postpone the confirmation committee meetings this week of several of Trump’s nominees until they turn in financial disclosure reports to resolve any potential conflicts of interest.
McConnell, who in 2009 demanded President Obama’s nominees have necessary paperwork and FBI background checks submitted prior to committee hearings, balked at Schumer’s slowdown attempts as sore loser gripes.
“All of these little procedural complaints are related to their frustration at having not only lost the White House but having lost the Senate,” McConnell told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “I understand that but we need to sort of grow up here and get past that.”
Several of Trump nominees are still missing paperwork, according to a Senate aide, including Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos, Commerce Secretary nominee Wilbur Ross, Housing and Urban Development choice Dr. Ben Carson and Homeland Security Secretary nominee retired General John Kelly.
Committee confirmation hearings are scheduled for Kelly on Tuesday, DeVos on Wednesday and Carson and Ross on Thursday. Democrats want access to all the paperwork before they grill the nominees.
McConnell Sunday committed to making sure all the documents will be ready once nominees pass out of the committees and before the full senate takes a final vote.
“The real thing is the vote on the floor,” McConnell said. “And we want to have all the records in– all the papers completed before they’re actually confirmed on the Senate floor.”
Schumer accused Republicans of trying to “ram” through nominees without all the necessary ethics agreements and background checks in place.
“Until these nominees have fully cooperated with the ethics review process, the hearings and confirmation schedule should not be rushed,” Schumer said in a statement Sunday.
The director of the independent Office of Government Ethics raised “great concern” about scheduling confirmation hearings before nominees could be properly “precleared.”
“The announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,” Walter M. Shaub, Jr. wrote in a letter responding to Democratic senators. “This schedule has created undue pressure on OGE’s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews. More significantly, it has left some of the nominees with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before their scheduled hearings.
“I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process,” Shaub concluded.
Trump’s cabinet picks will require a simple majority for confirmation. Republicans hold 52 seats in the Senate, making Democratic attempts to block certain Trump nominees an uphill climb.
“We need to have the president’s national security team in place on Day One,” McConnell said on the need for urgency. “And papers are still coming in. And so I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to get up to seven nominees on Day One, just like we did eight years ago.”