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January 6, 2017

Six Confirmation Hearings, Trump News Conference Scheduled on One Day
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In Washington, Republican lawmakers have scheduled confirmation hearings
for Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees next week-with at least six
candidates set to testify to senators on the same day. It's a move that
critics say is a clear effort to prevent public scrutiny of Trump's
controversial Cabinet picks. The six scheduled to appear before Senate
committees on January 11 are Betsy De Vos for Education, Elaine Chao for
Transportation, John Kelly for Homeland Security, Rex Tillerson for
secretary of state, Mike Pompeo for CIA and Jeff Sessions for attorney
general. Critics say Sessions has failed to complete his Senate
Judiciary Committee questionnaire, and are asking for a delay in his
confirmation hearings. The crush of hearings comes on the same day that
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mc Connell has scheduled a
rapid-fire series of budget items dubbed a "vote-o-rama" that will
include votes related to repealing the Affordable Care Act. And topping
it off, President-elect Donald Trump has scheduled his first news
conference for January 11--the first since July, when he called on
Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails.


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