The top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is calling for Energy secretary nominee Chris Wright’s confirmation hearing to be postponed by a week.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) led the panel’s eight Democrats and one independent in firing off a letter to Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) requesting that the hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, be pushed back because senators had yet to receive some of Wright’s required ethics and financial disclosures.
The request follows Monday’s postponement of Interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum’s confirmation hearing, which Lee rescheduled from Tuesday to Thursday because of similar paperwork issues.
Lee has said Wright and Burgum submitted their required ethics and financial disclosures on time, but that senators have yet to receive some of the finalized copies because of delays at federal agencies such as the Office of Government Ethics. Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based fracking company.
Heinrich wrote in the letter that ENR still had not received “the standard financial disclosure report, ethics agreement, or the opinions from the designated agency ethics officer and the Office of Government Ethics stating that the nominee is in compliance with the ethics laws, which are required by law of all nominees for positions that require Senate confirmation.”
The holdups have sparked conflict between Lee and Heinrich, both new leaders of the committee. Heinrich last week publicly accused Lee of breaking protocol by scheduling Burgum and Wright’s hearings without his consent and without having received the required forms.
Lee said last week that he thought the forms would come in with enough time to allow senators to review them before the hearings.
Lee’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Elizabeth Horton, a press officer at OGE, said the agency does not discuss individuals’ processes and referred POLITICO’s E&E News to an agency webpage explaining nominees’ review processes.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead EPA, Lee Zeldin, is still scheduled to have his hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday morning. Committee leaders have said they received the required forms.