Mike Lee Blasts Dems Over Efforts To 'Stall And Delay' Top Trump Administration Nominees

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During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) urged support for President Donald Trump's Energy Department nominees, and slammed Democrats for holding up nominations on the Senate floor.

Transcript

00:00Today is the Energy and Natural Resources Committee's eighth business meeting of

00:05the 119th Congress, and I want to thank my friend and colleague, the ranking

00:09member, Senator Heinrich, and his staff for working on the schedule for today's

00:15Marko. I also want to thank all the senators on the committee for your prompt

00:19attendance and your participation today. This morning we'll be voting on

00:23nominations of three nominees from whom we heard at our hearing on Wednesday,

00:30July 9th. We will not be voting on David Eisner for Assistant Secretary of Energy

00:35as he's asked for his nomination to be withdrawn. All three nominees are who are

00:42under consideration today in today's business meeting submitted timely answers

00:47to questions submitted by senators for the record on our July 9th hearing. First

00:53we'll vote on the nomination of the Honorable Lanny Erdos, second we'll vote

00:57on the nomination of Ms. Audrey Robertson, and third we'll vote on the nomination

01:01of Mr. Timothy Walsh. I'm happy to support each of these very well qualified

01:07nominees. As soon as we have reporting quorum present I'm going to ask the

01:13committee to vote on the nominations and then after the votes I'll recognize any

01:17member who wishes to speak briefly on any of the nominees and continue to be

01:22grateful to senators insofar as they're willing to keep their remarks brief yeah

01:29let's see we do not yet have a voting quorum present but hope hope to do so soon so

01:40again today we're going to vote to advance three more President Trump's

01:45highly qualified nominees for critical leadership positions within the

01:49departments of energy and interior to date we've considered 21 nominees and the

01:54majority of them have received bipartisan support from members of the committee

01:57Americans elected President Trump to disrupt business as usual and deliver

02:01bold results these nominees reflect that promise they're highly qualified and

02:06they're exactly the kind of leaders the American people expected him to assemble to

02:10achieve energy dominance they're proven experienced professionals with many

02:15with decades of experience of distinguished leadership in both the public and

02:21private sectors who have earned praise from Republicans and Democrats alike yet

02:26despite broad partisan bipartisan approval we continue to have stall and delay

02:34tactics when we get to the Senate floor of the nominees we've advanced out of this

02:39committee before today only five have been confirmed by the Senate more than six

02:43months into a new administration each day these vital positions remain unfilled we

02:48delay the work needed to strengthen our energy systems steward our national natural

02:53resources and support communities that depend on both of these things as a

02:58result American families face higher energy costs and our nation's interests

03:02remain unnecessarily vulnerable is kind of defunction is it precisely what the

03:09American people are fed up with they spoke clearly in November expect results and to

03:15achieve those were results the president the United States needs to be able to put his

03:19personnel in place this committee has consistently filled its responsibilities by

03:24holding timely hearings and swiftly moving nominees forward with bipartisan

03:30cooperation and support now it's time for both parties to come together to confirm these

03:36qualified bipartisan nominees so that they can get to work for the American people we've done our job on

03:43these and it's time to give the president the tools and the team that he needs to make America

03:48stronger safer and more secure we do not yet have the voting quorum present ranking

03:55member Heinrich if you'd like to give your opening statements

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