WASHINGTON —
The U.S. Senate will be ground zero this week for the first major battle for President-elect Donald Trump: a rigorous and contentious confirmation process for his Cabinet nominees and other top administration picks.
Hearings for nine Trump nominees will be held this week, starting Tuesday with Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, tapped to be the next attorney general, the country’s top law enforcement official.
LIVE: Watch the hearing for attorney general nominee, Sen. Jeff Sessions
Sessions is likely to face tough questions from Democrats about his relations with blacks and his past efforts fighting immigration reform. Thirty years ago, the Senate rejected his nomination to be a federal judge because of allegations he had made racially insensitive remarks, a charge Sessions denied.
He was the first senator to endorse Trump’s presidential bid at a time when political Washington thought the billionaire real estate mogul turned politician had no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump on Monday called the 70-year-old Sessions “a high quality man.”
One Democrat, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, said he would testify against Sessions, the first time in Senate history a sitting senator has testified against a Senate colleague nominated for a Cabinet position. Booker said the “deeply troubling views of this nominee is a call to conscience.”
Speaking to VOA, Wyoming Republican Senator John Barrasso said he hoped the confirmation process would be swift, like it was eight years ago.
“When President Obama came into office [in 2009], he had his Cabinet, a core working group, confirmed the first day,” he said. “And I would hope that we have that same situation with President Trump when he takes office on January 20.”
Trump predicted Monday the Senate will confirm all of his Cabinet choices. “I think they’ll all pass,” Trump said, describing them as “all at the highest level.”
FILE – Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Democrats need more info
But Democrats say numerous Trump nominees have been slow to complete paperwork and release ethics and financial information considered to be standard requirements for Cabinet picks and federal agency heads.
“We are focused on not getting all the completed ethics forms, tax returns, and that’s just unprecedented,” Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told VOA.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, noted Republicans demanded Obama’s nominees clear the same hurdles on ethics, FBI background checks, and financial disclosures prior to their confirmation hearings in 2009.
Schumer said, “I only ask that the Republican majority follow the same set of standards they had in 2009 when the shoe was on the other foot.”
Republicans insist no Trump nominee will be able to flout confirmation requirements, even if Democrats do not believe the information provided is sufficient.
“Nobody has ever had all the information in these [confirmation] proceedings. But they [senators] will have adequate information, no question about that,” Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah told VOA.
FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, left, meets with Rex Tillerson, on Capitol Hill, Jan. 4, 2017.
Potential conflicts of interest
But the director of the non-partisan Office of Government Ethics has raised concerns that the sheer volume of nominees, the hectic pace of confirmation hearings, and the failure of some Cabinet picks to provide financial information has taxed the organization’s ability to thoroughly vet them prior to the hearings.
“President-elect Trump’s nominees pose particularly difficult ethics and conflict of interest challenges,” Schumer said. “They come, many of them, from enormous wealth. Many have vast holdings in stocks, and very few have experience in government. So they have not been appropriately vetted for something like a Cabinet post before.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, downplayed Democrats’ concerns after meeting Monday with Trump in New York.
“Everybody will be properly vetted as they have in the past, and I am hopeful it will get up to six or seven, particularly the national security team, on day one,” McConnell told reporters.
Republicans control 52 seats in the 100-member Senate. Should they maintain party unity behind Trump’s nominees, they can all but assure the president-elect’s team will be confirmed. Democrats can delay votes, but are unable to block nominees on their own.
In addition to Sessions, retired Marine General John Kelly, Trump’s pick as the homeland security chief, is facing a confirmation hearing Tuesday.
On Wednesday, former ExxonMobil chief Rex Tillerson, nominated as secretary of state; Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife who was named as the transportation chief; Congressman Mike Pompeo, picked as the Central Intelligence Agency director, and Betsy DeVos, the charter school advocate Trump selected as education secretary, are all scheduled for hearings.
Defense Secretary-designate James Mattis, a retired Marine general, has his confirmation hearing Thursday, as do business investor Wilbur Ross, named as commerce secretary, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, picked as the housing and urban development chief.
WATCH: Confirmation process explained
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