Vote on DeVos Nomination Pushed Back a Week
By Andrew Kreighbaum
January 23, 2017
The Senate education committee has pushed back a vote on the nomination of Betsy DeVos for education secretary to give senators time to review a letter of agreement from the Office of Government Ethics. The vote by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will now take place Jan. 31 at 10 a.m. — a week later than originally planned.
The letter from OGE outlines steps DeVos has agreed to take to avoid conflicts of interest. That agreement, released Friday, lists 102 potential conflicts of interest with financial assets DeVos will divest from.
The committee held its confirmation hearing for DeVos last week but heard few major revelations about her positions on higher ed policy.
A spokeswoman for committee chairman Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, said DeVos has completed paperwork required by the committee ahead of the hearing and will spend the coming days answering additional questions submitted in writing by senators.