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Senate Begins Confirmation Hearings for Top Trump Nominees

by Ken Bredemeier

   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.

   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