A confirmation hearing for former Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, who was nominated to a key trade post, was interrupted and then delayed on Thursday as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee fought over information in Issa’s FBI file that could be potentially disqualifying.
Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, had decided to hold confirmation hearings for two nominees whose FBI background files contained classified and potentially disqualifying information that the White House declined to release to anyone other than Risch and ranking Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
In going forward with the hearing, Risch broke with decades of bipartisan tradition in the committee, which normally would not schedule confirmation hearings without the agreement of the ranking member of the opposing party. Menendez had opposed the scheduling of the hearing.
View the complete September 19 article by Rachel Oswald on The Roll Call website here.