Republicans Change Confirmation Rules To Overcome Democrat Boycott
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Feb 1, 2017
In an unexpected move on Tuesday, Senate Democrats announced they would boycott the votes of Steven Mnuchin and Tim Price, effectively blocking the confirmation process which requires the presence of at least one Democrat. However, on Wednesday, Senate Republicans found a loophole to push through Trump’s two Cabinet nominees Wednesday, by upending standard committee rules to circumvent a Democratic boycott.
As Bloomberg reports, the Senate Finance Committee – with only Republican members present – advanced Steven Mnuchin to head the Treasury Department, and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as secretary of Health and Human Services. They did so when the Republicans gathered in the hearing room and unanimously agreed to change the committee’s standing rules, which normally require at least one member of each party to be in attendance for committee work to proceed.
“It’s just another way of roughing up the president’s nominees,” said committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). “They have been treated fairly. We have not been treated fairly.”
Republicans made the unusual move after Democrats refused to attend a vote on the nominees for two days running, arguing the pair had made misleading statements to lawmakers that needed to be rectified. The nominees now head to the Senate floor, as partisan tensions over filling out Trump’s White House continued to intensify.
The reason for the Democrat boycott is that allegedly questions continue to swirl for weeks around Price’s investment activity, including whether his political actions benefitted his personal portfolio. “Both nominees have yet to answer important questions that impact the American people,” committee Democrats wrote in a letter sent to Hatch Wednesday.
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