Republicans advance Mnuchin, Price without Democrats in the room

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

published 1 February 2017

Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee advanced President Trump's nominee for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and Trump's nominee for health secretary, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), on Wednesday with zero Democrats present. To do so required committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to suspend the committee rules, which normally require a quorum of at least one Democrat in the room in order to permit a vote.

Senate Democrats had refused to attend Mnuchin and Price's hearings Tuesday in a boycott intended to delay to proceedings. Price "outright lied to our committee," protested Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in reference to a report that Price received an offer to buy a biomedical stock at a discount, contrary to what he said in his confirmation hearing.

Hatch called the Democrats' boycott "pathetic" and "amazingly stupid," and accused them Wednesday of "[choosing] to cower in the hallway."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.