Confirmation Hearing For Betsy DeVos, Trump's Education Pick, Delayed A Week

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The confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, the billionaire philanthropist who is President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of education, has been delayed for almost a week.

DeVos' hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, but late on Monday night, the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions announced it had been delayed until Jan. 17, next Tuesday.

The move comes after Democrats had raised concerns about the wealthy philanthropist's incomplete financial disclosures and unfinished ethics review, as Politico reported last week. The top Democrat on the HELP committee asked for a rescheduled hearing, saying she was concerned about "extensive financial entanglements and potential conflicts of interest," Politico says.

DeVos submitted her financial disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics last month but has not yet finalized or signed the paperwork, Politico reported Friday.

The Washington Post reports that DeVos' "vast wealth and considerable financial holdings have overwhelmed the bipartisan Office of Government Ethics," which vets Cabinet nominees. The office has not finished examining DeVos' investments for possible ethical concerns, the newspaper reported Saturday.

But in announcing the delay, the HELP committee made no reference to concerns over conflicts of interest. Instead, the committee said the delay was "at the request of Senate leadership to accommodate Senate schedule."

DeVos is a "strong supporter of school choice" with "limited experience with public education," as NPR's Eric Westervelt has reported: