President-elect Donald Trump's administration is reportedly planning massive cuts to the Energy Department's budget, and former Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas), Trump's nominee for energy secretary, was faced with the tough question of how he'd push back at his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) asked for Perry's commitment to fight for the department's research budget, telling Perry that Trump's administration would be "cutting the legs out from under you" if they made the "devastating" and "absolutely nuts" budget cuts.
Perry cited his "rather interesting background" of "defending budgets," but didn't exactly commit one way or the other. In fact, all Perry said in response to King's question was that he knows "what the Department of Energy should be good at." Earlier in the hearing, Perry joked that maybe Trump's team would "forget" the cuts they'd proposed.
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