The confirmation hearing for presumptive Interior nominee Doug Burgum has been delayed by two days after Democratic pushback over missing paperwork.
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in a statement that he would push back the hearing because of paperwork delays.
“To ensure transparency and uphold the integrity of this process, the committee will postpone Governor Burgum’s hearing until Thursday,” Lee said.
He added that Burgum “promptly” submitted his paperwork and blamed the delay on the Office of Government Ethics (OGE).
“Despite his compliance and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee noticing the hearing in accordance with all rules, OGE has yet to complete its review. This bureaucratic delay is unacceptable,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the Office of Government Ethics declined to address Burgum’s specific case, but directed The Hill to a document on its website indicating that on average, the last two presidential transitions began submitting paperwork earlier.
The postponement comes after Sen. Martin Heinrich (N.M.), the top Democrat on the Senate Energy panel, accused his GOP counterpart of breaching protocol in holding a hearing before the paperwork was received.
On Monday, prior to Lee’s announcement, the committee’s Democrats requested a delay of at least a week, saying in a letter to the chairman that documents including Burgum’s financial disclosure and ethics agreement still had not been received.
“In view of the fact that the Committee still does not have these documents, which are essential for us to faithfully discharge our constitutional advice-and-consent responsibilities, we respectfully request that you postpone the scheduled hearing on Governor Burgum’s nomination for at least a week to give Members sufficient time to receive and review these materials,” they wrote.
