Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee stalled votes on the nominations of two Donald Trump cabinet nominees on Monday by refusing to attend the meeting, denying Republicans a quorum.
According to the Democrats, they boycotted the vote because both Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chosen for health and human services secretary, and Steven Mnuchin, tapped for treasury secretary, lied to the committee during their testimony.
Mr. Mnuchin told me his bank didn't engage in robo-signing, a predatory practice, I found the docs showing he did.
— Senator Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) January 31, 2017
At least one member of each party must be present at Senate Finance Committee meetings for any business to take place.
“We want the committee to regroup, get the information, have these two nominees come back in front of the committee, clarify what they lied about — I would hope they would apologize for that — and then give us the information that we all need for our states,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, outside the committee room.
Republican Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was forced to gavel out the meeting, delaying the votes indefinitely. He lamented the incident as “one of the most alarming things I’ve seen in my 40 years in the U.S. Senate,” calling the Democrats “idiots” for having the temerity to put on hold a presidential appointment. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
In fact, Republicans boycotted a 2013 committee vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, denying Democrats a quorum. Like Democrats today, Republicans were seeking more information from McCarthy. One of those Republicans was Jeff Sessions, currently nominated for attorney general. McCarthy eventually got confirmed.
In addition, Republicans withheld even a hearing on the nomination of Merrick Garland to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court for nearly a year. Donald Trump plans to announce his choice to fill the Scalia vacancy Tuesday night.
Democrats have a good argument that both nominees lied to the committee.
Mnuchin has repeatedly lied about OneWest Bank, which he ran from 2009 to 2015, and its history of robo-signing. On two occasions in written responses, Mnuchin has claimed that OneWest never engaged in robo-signing, despite considerable evidence to the contrary. Robo-signing is a tactic whereby low-level employees perjure themselves by signing foreclosure documents claiming to verify loan information, without ever reviewing the facts. An employee of OneWest admitted to robo-signing in a 2009 deposition, and the Columbus Dispatch found dozens of robo-signed OneWest documents in Ohio public records.
Price, the HHS nominee, received a sweetheart deal from Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biomedical company, to purchase discounted stock shares in a private placement. He told the Senate Finance Committee that the deal was open to all investors in the company, but the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that the deal was only available by invitation to fewer than 20 people in the U.S.
Price received the invitation from a fellow member of Congress, Chris Collins, R-N.Y., who sits on the board of Innate. When Innate’s CEO pushed back on the Wall Street Journal story to a CNN reporter, Collins — accidentially hitting “reply all” — cheered on the CEO for defending Price.
The Innate private placement has so far paid off, with the stock soaring after Price secured legislation that would help push through one of their multiple sclerosis drugs. But the discrepancy between Price’s comments to the committee and published reports, along with his other questionable trades of medical stocks, prompted the Democratic boycott.
Hatch, the committee chairman, did not schedule a vote for Mnuchin and Price, nor did he ask them to return to the committee to answer more questions from Democrats. “Maybe we gotta change the rules so we don’t need” Democrats to for a vote, Hatch muttered.
Kurt Walters, campaign director for Demand Progress, one of several progressive groups mobilizing around Trump cabinet picks, praised the action by Democrats. “Lying to the Senate is unacceptable and disqualifying for any nominee,” Walters said.
Top photo: Empty seats in the Senate Finance Committee hearing room on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 31, 2017, after Senate democrats boycotted the markup hearings for the nominations of Steven T. Mnuchin and Thomas Price.
They need to stop
Lying liars lying about their indignation and the fact that they are all liars.
Faking fakers faking ……..
Bipartisanship.
DEMOCRATS SHAME
Those working for the President used the ideas and ideals, methodology and analysis, of Todd Elliott Koger to get Mr. Trump elected without giving credit. Mr. Koger’s message “50 years of failed Democratic inner cities” oscillated in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin around a central point “jobs for the poor.” The media is aware of this but doesn’t report it, as to “downplay” the African American departure from the Democratic Party in 2016 and the black community’s contribution to Trump’s unexpected victory.
The National Diversity Coalition for Trump and others from the campaign did send a “Thank You.” But Todd Elliott Koger and his wife didn’t even get tickets for the Trump inauguration, its events, and no job offers. Blacks and poor whites that supported Mr. Trump have a basic expectation that his administration will be intelligent enough to serve. The last thing they wanted is further insult, that is, there has not been enough “executive presence” thus far to keep their best interest at heart.
When will someone finally speak up, his senior staff SUCKS!!! As an entity they are failing him in the same manner that they troubled his campaign. There are just too many issues and unnecessary problems that have no place in the execution of what Donald Trump is trying to do. They have one responsibility, to protect the president from those things that threaten to sabotage his administration. It’s a science and the “high-paid” scientists are not doing their job. We have neither the time nor reason to entertain anymore of this amateurism. Do your job. The unemployed blacks and whites in the inner city and rural America who bailed Trump out during the campaign deserve better . . . .
“…have these two nominees come back in front of the committee, clarify what they lied about — I would hope they would apologize for that — and then give us the information that we all need for our states,…”
Gosh, I remember when lying under oath to a Senate committee was considered perjury. But I guess now it just requires that you give some meaningless apology before getting your inevitable appointment. Or at least that’s the way Democrats see it when they deal with their corporate masters.
What spineless losers.
It used to be that way. Lying to Congress is a high crime and was once treated as such. Then, along came Reagan, and the New Right sought to push back against Congress.
Of course, I do wish that Hillary Clinton got held accountable for lying to Congress as well…
Don’t just stall the vote. Completely refuse to confirm them.
They may not have that choice – the Democrats are the minority party, and they’d have to get a few more Republicans to join them if they want to block nominees. But stalling them by continuing to demand answers about why they lied to the Senate is the kind of thing that can make candidates look bad.
Voters can take a stand and tell their Senators. Tell them that robosigning is wrong and criminal- no matter who does it. Tell them that Price’s actions were wrong, and it would not matter which party did it. If you can convince them, wonderful! (If the Democrats all oppose and 3 Republicans join them (or 2, depending on if Sessions has resigned yet), the nomination would be defeated.) If not- use it for the next guy or gal who runs against them. Most candidates would not want to be tied to a lawbreaker.
It’s nice to see some Dem push-back, for a change. If not this admin, then whose?
If perjury doesn’t disqualify a candidate, then what does?
The outrage by Chairman Hatch: priceless.
Great story, David Dayen.
Dayden doesn’t know what he’s talking about and is making the Intercept look bad here.
Sorry!
Were you typing that comment out on your phone before catching an approaching train back to CT or something?
Wow! Sen. Hatch mutters that maybe we should change the rules so that Democrats do not need to be present to vote! How is this ok??? Our country is being hi-jacked by right wing power hungry individuals. WTF is going on? I feel as if we are moving closer and closer to large scale civil disobedience.
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
-A group of rebel lawyers.
Sen Harry Reid changed many rules and came dangerously close to eliminating the filibuster himself. Playing with the rules can seriously backfire. I do agree with you that large scale civil disobedience is in order. I’m hoping for some real leadership to emerge from this, though I suspect it’s going to have to come from us. Public servants are exactly that. This time, it’s on us to resist and demand a better government.
And some of us have to run.