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GOP Tries to 'Rush Through' Appointees Not Yet Vetted, Ethics Office Warns
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/gop_tries_to_jam_through_nominees_not_ye
t_vetted_ethics_20170108/
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Posted on Jan 8, 2017
By Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/08/gop-tries-jam-through-nominees-
not-yet-vetted-ethics-office-warns)
U.S. Department of Agriculture / Flickr
(https://www.flickr.com/photos/usdagov/9609724238) / CC-BY-2.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Days before the confirmation process is set to begin, with schedule
purposely packed
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/05/gops-brilliant-plan-distract-cr
itical-confirmation-hearings) with conflicts, it appears that many of
President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet nominees have not been properly
vetted despite numerous potential conflicts of interest.
The head of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) sent a letter
(https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/817844779568562176) to Democratic
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Chuck Schumer (NY) on Saturday expressing
"great concern" over the fact that the hearings are set to begin on Tuesday
and his office had not yet received financial disclosure reports for some of
the scheduled nominees.
"As OGE's director, the announced hearing schedule for several nominees who
have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,"
wrote Walter Shaub, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013, in
a letter to Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen.
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The current confirmation schedule, which has six nominees scheduled for the
same days as well as a Trump press conference and a Senate 'vote-o-rama,' he
wrote, "has created undue pressure on OGE's staff and agency ethics
officials to rush through these important reviews."
"More significantly," Schuab continued, "it has left some of the nominees
with with potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues shortly before
their scheduled hearings. I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades
since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before
the nominee had completed the ethics review process."
As of Saturday, he noted, not all of the nominees scheduled have completed
the review. What's more, OGE "has not received even initial draft financial
disclosure reports for some of the nominee scheduled for hearings," which
seemed to be an unprecedented failure on the part of the nominees as well as
the Trump transition team.
The letter, which was penned in response to an update request
(https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/817844328513044481) from Warren and
Schumer, casts doubt on whether the nominees will received a proper vetting,
which is particularly concerning because of the many potential conflicts
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/12/20/waivers-and-pardons-mounting-et
hics-concerns-trumps-ultra-wealthy-cabinet) they hold.
Trump's cabinet, slated to be by far the wealthiest in modern history
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/12/01/trumps-administration-poised-be
-wealthiest-modern-us-history) , include numerous billionaires, corporate
CEOs, and business people with deep financial ties to the industries they
are appointed to govern. As Warren and Schumer wrote to Shaub, "Many of the
President-elect's Cabinet nominees are extremely wealth individuals with
complex financial situations."
Trump, also said to have the most blatant conflicts of interest
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/11/17/trump-empire-contains-most-blat
ant-conflicts-interest-history) for an incoming President, has similarly
failed to address or rectify his business entanglements
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/05/no-conflict-here-150-wall-stree
t-firms-own-over-15-billion-trumps-debt) so far.
Warren responded (https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/817845208104783872)
to the letter Saturday saying that her Republican colleagues were trying to
"run out the clock" while the nominees "dragged their feet." Schumer last
week warned
(http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/02/democrats-aim-slam-brakes-key-m
embers-trumps-rigged-cabinet) the GOP that any effort to "jam through"
Trump's problematic picks would be met with fierce resistance.
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