Trump could pick government's top ethics official - after key ally blocked Biden's choice

Source: CNN Politics

Updated 10:11 AM EST, Fri November 8, 2024


CNN — President-elect Donald Trump could be in a position to select the government’s top ethics czar when he assumes office in January – after a key ally in the Senate blocked President Joe Biden’s pick to head the Office of Government Ethics. Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah in September objected to the speedy Senate confirmation of David Huitema to the post – a little more than a year after he was first nominated by Biden.

In a Senate speech, Lee said the confirmation vote should be delayed until after the presidential election, citing what he called the “political weaponization of the US government against Donald Trump by the Biden-Harris administration.” Huitema has served as an ethics official with the State Department. Lee’s office did not respond to a CNN inquiry Thursday about the nomination.

The Senate could return to the issue next week, during a lame duck session. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has taken steps to set up a procedural vote on several nominations, including Huitema’s, before the chamber flips to Republican control in January.

Independent watchdog groups outside the government say the agency, known as OGE, needs a permanent director to help oversee the onslaught of ethics reviews that are part of the transition to a new administration.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/08/politics/donald-trump-ethics-czar/index.html

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Pay attention to the tactics of "the minority party" and this will need to be the case for us the next 2 years. Endless "holds" on the loons who will be presented for confirmation.