Dems Blocking DeVos Confirmation buy Forcing Her to Answer Nearly 1400 Written Questions
“25 times as many follow-up questions as Republicans asked of either of President Obama’s education secretaries.”
1.25.2017
55
According to the Daily Caller, Democrats are attempting to obstruct the confirmation of Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos by burdening her with 837 written, follow-up questions from her Senate confirmation hearing.
“Mrs. DeVos’ Senate opponents are grasping for straws,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said. “We didn’t have time to question her, they say, even though she met with each one of them in their offices, and her hearing lasted nearly an hour and a half longer than either of President Obama’s education secretaries.”
Alexander noted that answering follow-up questions is a customary practice for nominees, but in this instance the number is astronomically higher than any other nominee in the position’s history.
To provide some perspective, DeVos’ 837 follow-up questions — the number actually comes out to a mind-boggling 1,397 if you include all the "questions-within-a-question" — is “25 times as many follow-up questions as Republicans asked of either of President Obama’s education secretaries,” according to Alexander.
Arne Duncan, Obama’s first Secretary of Education, was required to answer a mere 53 written, follow-up questions. Obama’s second Secretary, John King Jr., was given 56.
“Even though they disagree with her, Democrats should also promptly confirm Betsy DeVos,” Alexander wrote. “Few Americans have done as much to help low-income students have a choice of better schools.”
“She is on the side of our children," he continued. "Her critics may resent that, but this says more about them than it does about her.”
Indeed it does.
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