Democrats request another hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, before confirmation vote
Senate Democrats are formally asking Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) to hold a second confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s education nominee, arguing that they need an opportunity to further scrutinize her potential conflicts of interests and preparedness to lead the Education Department.
“Education is too important an issue, and the Secretary of Education is too important a position for the country and for this Committee, to jam a nominee through without sufficient questioning and scrutiny,” they wrote to Alexander in a letter Monday. “This is not about politics, it should not be about partisanship — it should be about doing the work we were elected by our states to do to ask questions of nominees on behalf of the people we represent.”
Those signing the letter included 10 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. They are all members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which is overseeing DeVos’s confirmation.
Democrats complained when Alexander, chairman of the HELP committee, limited each member of the committee to one five-minute round of questioning during DeVos’s first hearing, on Jan. 17. Alexander was resolute at the time, and he has shown no signs that he is willing to have another hearing.
“Saying there was not enough time to ask questions is absolute nonsense,” Alexander said in a statement last week. “Betsy DeVos’s hearing on Tuesday was three and a half hours, about an Democrats request another hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, before confirmation vote - The Washington Post: