Sparks Fly: Sen. Warren Demands Cmte Allow Further
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Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren led her fellow Democrats on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions in demanding that they be allowed a second round of questions for President-elect Donald Trump's Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos.
Warren asked committee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee) whether the members will be allowed another round of questions for DeVos, but was turned down.
Alexander said he afforded the committee the same parameters he did for both of President Obama's education secretaries, Arne Duncan and John King, Jr.
Warren contended that in the past, the committee was satisfied with the amount of questions for Duncan and King.
"Out of deference to the president (Obama) and the institution, [it was] appropriate to defer to the president and have a secretary in place," Alexander said of those situations.
Alexander said DeVos has spent 50 percent more time before the committee than the other nominees, and that she visited each senator's office and offered to do so in December but was refused.
"She followed every rule," he said, adding that senators may submit written questions to DeVos for the rest of the week.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) also asked Alexander about the amount of questions Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), the nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, will be allowed later this week.