NOTHING TO SEE HERE

Think Progress

January 09, 2017

That’s what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell et al want you to think. We saw last week as House Republicans rushed to gut the independence of their own ethics watchdog with a late night vote right after the holidays, which was luckily halted by a flood of constituent calls. And now, Mitch McConnell and the majority in the Senate are trying to rush Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees through the confirmation process, even though none of the nominees have finished all of their paperwork and disclosures. The Office of Government Ethics has “great” concerns about nominees getting hearing without complete ethics reviews.

For context, by this point in 2009, the Obama Administration made sure that every Cabinet nominee had completed their paperwork at least 3 days in advance of their hearings to give senators enough time for the advice and consent process. But instead of waiting for the paperwork to be filed, Mitch McConnell is trying to shove as many confirmation hearings into one day as possible—even though in 2009, McConnell asked the Senate to wait until the paperwork was complete. He has scheduled confirmation hearings for five Cabinet nominees on Wednesday alone. Also happening on Wednesday: a massive vote-o-rama on the Senate floor that will pull senators away and a *conveniently* timed press conference from president-elect Donald Trump on his own conflicts of interest that’ll likely distract the media from the hearings.

With all of the skeletons in the Cabinet nominees’ closets (i.e. conflicts of interest, histories of racism and sexism, donations to senators voting for their confirmation, etc.), it might make sense for McConnell to rush the confirmation process. But, this strategy shows once again that congressional Republicans and Donald Trump aren’t planning on governing with transparency and instead they are trying to con the very Americans who elected them.

Source
progress@americanprogressaction.org