“The United States Senate has a rich, bipartisan tradition of vetting nominees to the President’s Cabinet. We hope to continue that tradition with our colleagues in the Republican Majority because the American people are entitled to a fair and open consideration process for all executive nominations," said a joint statement Thursday by 16 Democrats who will be ranking members of Senate committees next year.

The Democrats' conditions for allowing a nominee to move forward include turning over financial disclosure forms, ethics agreements, passing an FBI background check and satisfying "reasonable requests for additional information," as well as giving lawmakers time to review the information.

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The New York Times reported this week that gathering financial information from Trump's Cabinet picks was going "arduously slow" even though the GOP wants to confirm many of the selections on the first day of the new administration.

Democrats face an uphill battle to block Trump's picks, who will only need a simple majority to clear the upper chamber. Republicans will have a 52-seat majority next year, and red-state Democrats in tough 2018 reelection races could also break ranks.

But Democrats have pledged to put the nominees through the gantlet, including trying to change Senate rules next year to require them to hand over three years of tax returns.

Democrats argue the change is important, in part, because Trump has refused to hand over the financial documents.

Quartz reported earlier this month that Trump's Cabinet picks have more wealth than a third of American households combined.

When President Obama was elected, Congress held hearings on his nominees in early January.

7 Cabinet nominees were confirmed on day one. — STEW (@StewSays) December 22, 2016

On 1/20/09, the #Senate confirmed 7 nominees for Pres. Obama's Cabinet (by voice vote), one more the next day, and nearly all within 2 weeks — STEW (@StewSays) December 22, 2016