Democrats have boycotted a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee in which Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), President Trump’s nominee for health and human services secretary, would have likely been approved for consideration by the full Senate.
They said they wanted more information about the financial activities of health nominee Tom Price and treasury pick Steven Mnuchin.
A vote on attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions was also postponed.
On January 30, the acting attorney general was sacked for questioning the legality of Donald Trump’s immigration order.
It imposes a temporary travel ban on seven mainly-Muslim countries.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates had been appointed by President Barack Obama.
Finance Committee Democrats told reporters outside the hearing that they were seeking more information about Tom Price’s trading in health company stock.
The Georgia Congressman has been nominated for the post of health and human services secretary in the new administration.
The senators said they were also concerned by reports of financier Steven Mnuchin’s behavior involving foreclosures at his former bank OneWest.
However, Senator Orrin Hatch, the Republican committee chair, described the Democrats’ behavior as “posturing and acting like idiots”, AP reported.
A battle also raged in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Jeff Sessions came under heavy criticism.
An early Donald Trump backer, Senator Jeff Sessions has faced racism allegations which overshadowed his confirmation hearings.
Committee chairman Senator Chuck Grassley began January 31 meeting by saying that neither Jeff Sessions nor any of his current staff, “had a role in formulating or drafting the executive orders” – including the controversial travel ban.
Several Democratic Senators spoke in the committee meeting to say that they intended to vote against the 69-year-old Alabama senator.
Senator Diane Feinstein criticized his role in Donald Trump’s election campaign and his closeness to the new president during it.
“It is very difficult to reconcile for me the independence and objectivity necessary for the position of attorney general with the partisanship this nominee has demonstrated,” she said.
The Democrats’ lengthy speeches extended the hearing into the afternoon, eventually forcing Sen. Chuck Grassley to postpone the vote until February 1.
If Jeff Sessions’ nomination is approved by the judiciary committee, the full Senate – where Republicans hold a 52-48 majority – is expected to vote on it by the end of the week.
The Alabama senator faced two days of tough questioning during his confirmation hearings this month.
One of the most conservative members of the Senate, Jeff Sessions was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after the judiciary committee heard testimony about his remarks on race.
According to new reports, Donald Trump is expected to pick former Goldman Sachs executive Steve Mnuchin to be treasury secretary.
Steve Mnuchin, who was Donald Trump’s campaign finance chairman and has no government experience, could be named on November 30, according to reports.
On November 29, Donald Trump picked Tom Price as health secretary and Elaine Chao as transportation secretary.
The president-elect is still weighing his options in filling the posts of state and defense.
Steve Mnuchin amassed a fortune over 17 years at Goldman Sachs investment bank, before founding a movie production company that was behind such box office hits as the X-Men franchise and American Sniper.
It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump’s first key economic policy move, potentially picking a consummate Wall Street insider to helm the nation’s financial system, will be welcomed by supporters who were energized by the Republican’s vow to “drain the swamp” of special interests.
Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross – known as “the king of bankruptcy” for his restructuring of failing industries – is tipped to be named as Donald Trump’s commerce secretary.
Also on November 29, Donald Trump met Mitt Romney for a second time despite one of his top aides launching a public campaign against offering the former Massachusetts governor the post of secretary of state.
Donald Trump had dinner with Mitt Romney and the president-elect’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway spoke out against Mitt Romney on November 27, saying Donald Trump’s supporters felt “betrayed” he would consider the 2012 Republican nominee for the prominent role.
Mitt Romney was one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics during the campaign.
The president-elect will also sit down with Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee.
The two men are leading contenders for the all-important diplomatic post.
Earlier, Donald Trump met retired General David Petraeus.
In a tweet after their meeting on November 28, Donald Trump said he was “very impressed” with the former CIA director.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has warned that the government will reach its debt limit by mid-October unless Congress acts quickly.
The debt ceiling was last raised in January. The government can no longer borrow if it is reached.
Jack Lew said that in such a case it will be unable to meet obligations such as pensions, military salaries and Medicare payments.
The country’s borrowing limit is currently capped at $16.7 trillion.
“Extraordinary measures are projected to be exhausted in the middle of October,” Jack Lew said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and other lawmakers.
“At that point, the US will have reached the limit of its borrowing authority, and Treasury would be left to fund the government with only the cash we have on hand on any given day,” he said.
The cash balance at that time is forecast to be about $50 billion, which Jack Lew said, would be “insufficient to cover net expenditures for an extended period”.
The US government will reach its debt limit by mid-October unless Congress acts quickly
He said: “Operating the government with no borrowing authority, and with only the cash on had on a given day, would place the United States in an unacceptable position.”
There have been tense debates between the White House and congressional Republicans over the government’s debt ceiling, spending cuts, and other fiscal matters.
In August 2011, the Republicans and the Democrats took a hard line while debating raising the borrowing limits.
They only reached a compromise on the day the government’s ability to borrow money was due to run out.
The delay in reaching a deal at that time led ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade the US for the first time ever, which sparked volatility in the financial markets.
The compromise also included a series of automatic budget cuts known as the “sequester” which came into affect earlier this year.
However, in his letter Jack Lew argued that raising the debt limit does not increase government but “simply allows Treasury to pay for expenditures [the] Congress has previously approved”.
He warned that a delay in raising the limit “would cause irreparable harm to the American economy”.
Jack Lew explained that if investors become unwilling to loan to the US, the country could face an immediate cash shortfall.
”Such a scenario could undermine financial markets and result in significant disruptions to the economy,” he said.
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