WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley announced Tuesday that there will be no delay for Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions’ scheduled confirmation hearing on January 10.
Democrats in the upper chamber appear ready to put up a fight against Sessions, Trump’s choice for attorney general and an outspoken critic of President Obama’s immigration policies. But Grassley made it clear that any calls to postpone the hearing over research materials would not be tolerated.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who will be the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee next Congress, pointed out in a letter to Grassley Friday that documents sent by Sessions to the committee regarding his work history, public speeches and other items to be pored over by senators totaled over 150,000 pages.
“This is more than 100 times what Attorney General [Loretta] Lynch produced (1,500 pages) and more than 29 times what [former] Attorney General [Eric] Holder produced (5,100 pages),” Feinstein wrote.
She added, “I am sure you would agree that staff must have sufficient time to do the due diligence on any nominee for this vital position—and this due diligence will likely take longer than the review for recent, prior nominees who had less materials to analyze.”
“As the committee members know, Attorney General Holder supplemented his questionnaire multiple times with, literally, hundreds of additions and clarifications, including one update more than a year after he was confirmed. And, most importantly, his hearing remained on schedule.”
Grassley responded to Feinstein’s complaint in his Tuesday statement:
“The materials provided to the committee by Senator Sessions are in large part public documents that anyone can find on his official Senate website. It’s information that’s been publicly available, in some instances, for twenty years. In fact, only a small percentage of the material was not already publicly available,” Grassley said Tuesday night.
He went on to say, “As the committee members know, Attorney General Holder supplemented his questionnaire multiple times with, literally, hundreds of additions and clarifications, including one update more than a year after he was confirmed. And, most importantly, his hearing remained on schedule.”
He concluded, “So, any suggestion that a nominee’s good faith efforts to locate and produce responsive material is cause for delay begins to look like a call for delay for delay’s sake, rather than a thorough review of a colleague’s character and qualifications. I look forward to hearing from Senator Sessions on Jan. 10.”