US Senate panel postpones hearing for Trump’s Interior pick Burgum

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate energy panel said on Monday the nomination hearing for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, will take place on Thursday instead of Tuesday, blaming a “bureaucratic delay” with a federal ethics office.

Burgum, who served as governor of North Dakota for two terms, is also being considered to head a new national energy council to coordinate policies to boost U.S. energy production, including raising oil and gas output, already at record highs.

Trump will take office on Jan. 20.

Senator Mike Lee, a Republican and chairman of the committee, said Burgum has been fully cooperative throughout the confirmation process and had promptly submitted his paperwork to the Office of Government Ethics. But Lee said OGE has yet to complete its review. “This bureaucratic delay is unacceptable,” he said.

The OGE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, Senator Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the committee, his fellow Democrats and one independent on the panel urged Lee to postpone the hearing for at least a week. They said the committee had not received the standard financial disclosure report and other ethics paperwork required by law.

Burgum, who closed out his second term as North Dakota governor last month, had decided to not seek reelection in January 2024, shortly after ending his 2024 presidential campaign. North Dakota ranks third among U.S. states, after Texas and New Mexico, in crude oil reserves and production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)