Some Trump nominees face confirmation delays with ethics and background checks behind schedule
Lawmakers are demanding Senate Republicans not move forward without full vetting, a process delayed by Trump's transition foot-dragging.
Senate Republicans are pausing the confirmation process for some of President-elect Trump’s picks to lead agencies over delays in the vetting process as watchdogs and Democrats continue to press leadership not to move forward without first considering the finances and other parts of would-be cabinet members’ backgrounds.
Lawmakers are hurrying to get at least some of Trump’s nominees into place by Inauguration Day next week, though some Senate committee chairs have said they are awaiting background checks from the FBI or reviews by the Office of Government Ethics. Some of those steps were delayed after Trump’s team spent months holding off the transition process.
Many of Trump’s intended cabinet picks were scheduled for confirmation hearings this week, but some of those have since been postponed as relevant committees are awaiting background information secretary-designates. That will likely mean Trump has fewer of his picks confirmed on his first day in office than Senate Republicans had initially hoped for.
Interior Department Secretary-designate Doug Burgum and Veterans Affairs Department Secretary-designate Doug Collins both had their confirmation hearings postponed Monday due to outstanding paperwork. Additional reports have suggested that Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to head the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Robert Kennedy, his Health and Human Service Department secretary-designate, are also facing delays for similar reasons.
“Despite his compliance and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee noticing the hearing in accordance with all rules, OGE has yet to complete its review,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that was set to hear Burgum’s testimony on Tuesday, said. “This bureaucratic delay is unacceptable.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said his panel is awaiting information from the FBI on Collins.
Trump only agreed to allow the FBI to screen his nominees in December, breaking precedent in which campaigns reach such agreements before the election. OGE noted on its website that its process for receiving financial disclosures and working with pending nominees on resolving potential conflicts of interest is a complicated one and it began receiving information later in the cycle than is typical.
During the last two transitions, OGE said, it took an average of 18 days to complete an individual’s ethics review. The exact timing depends on the complexity of the report and how throughout and accurate the individuals’ disclosures are to OGE.
Nominees must fill out financial disclosure forms, which Trump's team must pass on to OGE and the relevant agency at which the individual would serve. Both OGE and agency ethics staff analyze the documents and go through multiple rounds of discussions with the nominee to address any potential conflicts of interest. OGE then certifies a report and sends it to the Senate before posting it publicly.
Burgum’s delay came after Democrats on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Monday requested a pause as they did not yet have a financial disclosure report or a review from OGE and agency ethics officials.
Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit that provides transition guidance, said OGE is made up of “very, very few people” who are facing added pressure due to the compressed timeframe in which they are operating and the breadth of the financial entanglements of Trump’s selections.
“That issue becomes all the more challenging when you're dealing with people with large financial net worths as well as complicated portfolios,” Stier said. “The Trump team started very late in both respects, in terms of engaging the Office of Government Ethics as well as the FBI.”
OGE is a small agency with only 75 attorneys, Stier noted, that must be given time to carry out its duties.
“The truth of the matter is that the enforcement on this is not very good, and one of the most important ways that you can ensure that, at the top level for the Senate-confirmed individuals, that they actually abide by the important guidance and guidelines that the Office of Government Ethics gives is the requirement that they do this for their Senate confirmation,” Stier said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., similarly implored his colleagues not to move forward with hearings or consideration of nominees until all vetting had concluded.
“Getting documents is not trivial busy work,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Monday. “If these nominees have something to hide, these documents could show it. So it's important we don't rush to hearings without examining the record first.”
If Republicans opted to push forward without the information, he added, Americans might question what conflicts of interest they have and whether the nominees would be acting in the public interest.
Stier suggested the delays are "consequences that we're seeing very directly" of Trump's team falling far behind the normal schedule for signing transition agreements with the current administration.
Trump still has the opportunity to get a significant portion of his cabinet installed quickly after his inauguration. The Senate kicked off the confirmation process with the Armed Services Committee holding a hearing for Defense Department Secretary-designate Pete Hegseth on Tuesday. It will hold hearings for Homeland Security Department Secretary-designate Krist Noem, Attorney General-designate Pam Bondi, Energy Department Secretary-designate Chris Wight, State Department Secretary-designate Marco Rubio, CIA Director-designate John Ratcliffe, Transportation Department Secretary-designate Sean Duffy and Office of Management and Budget Director-designate Russ Vought on Wednesday.
Sean Michael Newhouse contributed to this report.
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