Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–January 10, 2017
Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos
Senate Republicans are aggressively downplaying its significance, but Monday night’s announcement of a delay on confirmation hearings for education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos highlights the broader problems with vetting of Donald Trump’s top nominees.
DeVos’s hearing, originally scheduled to take place on Wednesday morning, has been rescheduled for Jan. 17 at 5 p.m., according to a joint statement from the HELP committee chairman, Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), and ranking member, Patty Murray (D-Wash).
The move comes after Democrats raised concerns about the fact that the Office of Government Ethics, which has said it is overwhelmed by vetting Trump’s nominees, has not yet completed its review of DeVos’s financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest.
The official reason for the delay is “at the request of the Senate leadership to accommodate the Senate schedule.” Is that Senate schedule being accommodated the schedule of not being embarrassed by lack of vetting even beyond the point where Senate Republicans feel a little shame? Oh, probably not, but in any case:
An aide to Murray said the senator hopes the delay will allow DeVos to fully take part in an ethics review ahead of the confirmation hearing: “Senator Murray is hopeful that this additional time will allow Ms. DeVos to complete the required ethics paperwork in time for the Office of Government Ethics to submit it to the HELP Committee before her hearing, just as every single one of President Obama’s nominees did and as Leader McConnell demanded eight years ago.”
We know that Betsy DeVos has no experience in education beyond giving some of her billions of dollars to kill public education and replace it with as many private religious schools as possible, with privatized charter schools as a second choice. We know that a group she led violated campaign finance law and walked away from a multimillion dollar fine. We know that she’s given big contributions to senators who’ll be voting on her confirmation. And that’s what we know before she’s been fully vetted.
What’s more, DeVos is representative of Trump’s Cabinet picks: She’s a billionaire who wants to do away with the thing she’s being put in charge of, and her possible conflicts of interest need a whole lot more attention. No wonder the Office of Government Ethics is feeling overwhelmed.
Source: http://dailykos.com
