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Presumptive Interior nominee Doug Burgum’s confirmation hearing has been delayed two days after a Democratic crackdown over missing paperwork.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a statement that he would delay the hearing because of paperwork delays.
“To ensure transparency and maintain the integrity of this process, the committee will postpone Governor Burgum’s hearing until Thursday,” Lee said.
He added that Burgum “immediately” submitted his paperwork and blamed the delay on the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
“Despite compliance and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee noted hearing in accordance with all rules, OGE has yet to complete its review. This bureaucratic delay is unacceptable,” he wrote.
A spokesman for the Office of Government Ethics declined to address Burgum’s specific case, but directed The Hill to a document on their website indicating that, on average, the last two presidential transitions began filing earlier.
The postponement comes after Sen. Martin Heinrich (NM), the top Democrat on the Senate Energy panel, accused his GOP counterpart of breaking protocol by holding a hearing before receiving the paperwork.
On Monday, before Lee’s announcement, Democrats on the committee asked for a delay of at least a weeksaying in a letter to the president that documents that included Burgum’s financial disclosure and ethics agreement had not yet been received.
“Since the Committee does not yet have these documents, which are essential for us to faithfully fulfill our constitutional advisory and consent responsibilities, we respectfully request that you postpone the scheduled hearing on Governor Burgum’s nomination for at least one week. to give members sufficient time to receive and review these materials,” they wrote.