Senate Hearings: EPA and Treasury Secretary picks

Treasury secretary pick Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he wanted to beef up the Internal Revenue Service and believed he could convince President-elect Donald Trump to increase staff despite promises of a hiring freeze.

Mnuchin said he was concerned about staffing at the IRS, which is part of the Treasury Department, and the agency's "lack of first-rate technology."

But given Trump's promise of a federal government hiring freeze, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), asked Mnuchin whether he would lobby for more IRS workers.

"I assume you'll have an opportunity to talk to the president and hopefully get the number of people you need because they can't do it with their current workforce," Cardin said.

Mnuchin said that would not be a hard sell to Trump.

"I can assure you that the president-elect understands the concept of when we add people, we make money," Mnuchin said. "He’ll get that completely. That's a very quick conversation with Donald Trump."

Donald Trump’s preferred Cabinet is now complete — and it’s the least diverse by any president, Republican or Democrat, since the 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan. It’s also the first since 1989 not to include a Latino member.

Overwhelmingly, Trump’s Cabinet is white and male. The 15 formal slots include one African American man, secretary of Housing and Urban Development-designate Ben Carson; an Asian American woman, secretary of Transportation-designate Elaine Chao; and a white woman, Betsy DeVos, Trump's pick to run the Department of Education.

All Cabinet selections must be confirmed by the Senate.

Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday that the absence of Latinos in the high ranks of Trump’s administration — following a campaign in which the president-elect was often critical of them — should not be considered a breach of his promise to represent all Americans.

“He is here to serve all,” Spicer said.

“The number one thing that I think Americans should focus on, is he hiring the best and the brightest? Is he hiring people who are committed to enacting real change, respecting taxpayers, bringing about an agenda that will create jobs, lift up wages?"

He said Trump’s administration will include “diversity in gender and diversity in thinking and a diversity of ideology. So, it’s not just about, you know, skin color or ethnic heritage.”

Asked whether he meant to imply that no Latino candidate made the cut as among the “best and the brightest”, Spicer sharply retorted: “That’s not what I said.”

He added that other jobs remained to be filled: “I caution you to stay tuned.”

Trump’s Thursday designation of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue as secretary of Agriculture completed his Cabinet selections.

At least one Latino, former California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, interviewed for the job. On Wednesday night, he tweeted a picture from the lobby of the Trump International hotel a few blocks from the White House of “a beautiful bottle of Trump Sparkling Wine.”

At least three of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks are likely to be confirmed by the Senate as soon as Friday, while Democrats dig in against others that they say need more scrutiny.

Trump's national security team — James Mattis as Defense secretary and John Kelly at Homeland Security, both retired Marine generals — do not appear to be running into much resistance. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) as CIA director could also be confirmed Friday or Monday.

But Democrats are holding the line against Trump's other choices, who have run into questions over their personal finances and work history. Eight of Trump's picks are in Democrats' sights.

"The president-elect's Cabinet is a swamp Cabinet," said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) "Senate Democrats and the American people won't stand for it."

The Senate is set to convene Friday afternoon, after Trump takes the oath of office, to confirm some of his choices.

Republicans are pushing for the Senate to allow not just the national security team, but other selections, noting that the Senate swiftly confirmed eight of President Obama's nominees when the GOP was in the minority in 2009.

On Thursday, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer mentioned Elaine Chao at Transportation, Ben Carson as Housing secretary and Nikki Haley, the South Carolina governor, as the ambassador to the United Nations as picks who have not run into resistance and should be quickly confirmed.

But Trump's other choices are drawing deep resistance.

Former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson as secretary of State and Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) for Health and Human Services have run into tough questioning, and Treasury pick Steve Mnuchin was being grilled by senators Thursday. Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) is expected to run into tough questions at his hearing to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

As the minority, Democrats do not have enough votes in their 48-seat caucus to block most of Trump's picks. But they can slow the process.

They are demanding more robust hearings, especially because several of those under consideration have not completed the paperwork typically required.

With Republicans holding 52 seats in the Senate, they are expected to easily confirm most of Trump's picks after Democrats changed the rules several years ago to allow for a simple majority vote on most nominees.

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Trump's pick for Treasury secretary, said his hedge fund set up offshore corporations to serve clients and not so he could avoid paying U.S. taxes himself.

Pressed by Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on entities set up in the Cayman Islands and Anguilla, Mnuchin said they were "primarily intended to accommodate nonprofits and pensions that want to invest" through them.

Mnuchin said "in no way did I use them whatsoever to avoid any U.S. taxes."

But Democrats weren't satisfied.

"So you helped others avoid paying taxes?" asked Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

Mnuchin responded that they didn't avoid paying taxes.

"They followed the law," he said.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) asked Mnuchin if he supported closing such "tax avoidance provisions."

"We should address the issues for nonprofits and pensions and why they need to invest in these offshore funds," Mnuchin said.

Without a guarantee that people brought to the country illegally as children won't be deported, California Sen. Kamala Harris said Thursday that she will not support John Kelly, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Homeland Security Department.

“I am very concerned that Gen. Kelly has not been able to commit to me that he will honor the promise we made to those kids,” she told The Times.

Kelly is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate. Harris was the first member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to announce opposition to the retired Marine general.

Harris' questions about what would happen to people given temporary deportation relief through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program were some of the sharpest Kelly faced during his confirmation hearing last week. She pressed Kelly on whether the personal information provided by program participants would be to used identify candidates for deportation.

California is home to an estimated one-third of the 750,000 young people brought to the country illegally as children who applied for the program. They were promised by the Obama administration that if they went through the rigorous background check, they would not be deported.

In the hearing, Harris asked Kelly to honor that promise not to use DACA applications to assist in deportations.

Kelly said convicted criminals and other categories of immigrants in the U.S. illegally might be a higher priority, but he acknowledged he had not had discussions with Trump’s advisors about immigration policy.

“There’s a big spectrum of people who need to be dealt with in terms of deportation,” he said at the hearing. “I would guess that [DACA applicants] might not be the highest priority."

California's members of Congress have pleaded with the Obama administration to keep the participants' personal information from being used by the incoming Trump administration, which has pledged to crack down on immigration as soon as Trump takes office.

“I can’t look these kids in the face and offer them any guarantee that this guy won’t deport them, and without that guarantee I can’t support him,” Harris said Thursday. “For ethical and moral reasons, we have to honor our promise, the promise made by the United States government to these kids.”

Sen. Ron Wyden wasted no time ripping into Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Trump's pick for Treasury secretary, at Thursday's confirmation hearing, hitting the Wall Street executive for his financial dealings and the foreclosure practices at the California bank he once owned.

"The Treasury secretary ought to be somebody who works on behalf of all Americans," said Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

"When I look at Mr. Mnuchin's background, it is a real stretch to find hard evidence that he would be that kind of Treasury secretary," he said.

Wyden's  attack on Mnuchin was so aggressive that Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) told him, "I’ve got a Valium pill you might want to take before the second round.”

The comment sparked objections from Wyden and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), demonstrating the deep partisan divide over one of Trump's top Cabinet picks.

Wyden criticized Mnuchin's hedge fund, Dune Capital Management, for "setting up outposts in Anguilla and the Cayman Islands, an action that can be explained only by the islands’ zero percent tax rate."

"In Mr. Mnuchin’s case, millions of dollars in profits from Hollywood exports like the movie 'Avatar' were funneled to an offshore web of entities and investors," Wyden said.

Wyden raised questions about the decision by Pasadena's OneWest Bank, which Mnuchin chaired, "to loan hundreds of millions of dollars" to the Relativity Media movie studio.

And Wyden accused OneWest of pursuing foreclosures so aggressively that it showed "it could put more vulnerable people on the street faster than just about anybody else around."

"Under Mr. Mnuchin, OneWest churned out foreclosures like Chinese factories churned out Trump suits and ties," Wyden said.

Steven Mnuchin, the Wall Street executive chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next Treasury secretary, is expected to be pressed by Democrats at his confirmation hearing Thursday about aggressive home foreclosures conducted by OneWest Bank during his time as chairman of the Pasadena institution.

If confirmed, Mnuchin, 54, a hedge fund manager and Hollywood movie producer, would become a pivotal player in the Trump administration on the economy, trade, tax reform, housing policy, financial regulation and relations with China and other global economic powers

Aides are clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to take the first steps toward transforming the immigration system as soon as he takes office Friday, fulfilling a major campaign pledge while deepening the fears of immigration advocates about what’s to come.

Gone will be the temporary protections of the final Obama administration years for people in the country illegally. In their place, expect to see images on the evening news of workplace raids as Trump sends a message that he is wasting no time on his promised crackdown.

Donald Trump has minced few words about his plans to  build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and  end the threat from Islamic State extremists.

But the president-elect has been virtually silent on his plans when it comes to Afghanistan, home to America’s longest war.

With 8,400 U.S. troops leading a 13,000-strong NATO mission in Afghanistan, the incoming administration inherits one of the United States’ most stubborn and complex foreign policy challenges. Although President Obama promised to end U.S. military involvement, American service members continue to be drawn into combat as Afghan security forces struggle to contain a resilient Taliban insurgency.

President-elect Donald Trump intends to nominate former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue to serve as agriculture secretary, according to a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to speak publicly before it is announced.

Perdue, 70, would be the first Southerner to lead the Agriculture Department in more than two decades. He comes from the small city of Bonaire in rural central Georgia, where he built businesses in grain trading and trucking.

The Agriculture secretary job is the last Cabinet position for which Trump hasn't named a candidate.

Perdue began his political career as a Democrat in the state Legislature in 1991. But it was after switching his allegiance to the Republican Party that Perdue made Georgia history.

In 2002, Perdue was elected the state's first Republican governor since the end of Reconstruction more than 130 years earlier. Perdue's victory over an incumbent Democrat completed Georgia's shift to a solidly Republican state, ending generations of Democratic control of state government.

Under Perdue's watch, Georgia adopted tough new food safety regulations after a deadly U.S. salmonella outbreak was traced to Georgia-made peanut butter. He moved the state office that issues water permits for irrigation and other agricultural uses from Atlanta to rural south Georgia, where it would be closer to farmers. And Perdue poured millions of state dollars into Go Fish, a program that aimed to lure bass fishing tournaments to the state.

The ex-governor, whose full name is George Ervin Perdue III, grew up in central Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia, where he played football as a walk-on and earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine. Following a stint in the Air Force, Perdue returned to Georgia and settled in Bonaire, a city of about 14,000 people.

Perdue already has family serving in Washington. His cousin, former Dollar General Chief Executive David Perdue of Sea Island, Ga., was elected to the Senate in 2014.

Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency cast doubt on whether California should continue to have power to impose its own emission rules for cars and trucks, an authority the state has enjoyed for decades that is also the cornerstone of its efforts to fight global warming.

Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Scott Pruitt said at a contentious confirmation hearing Wednesday that he cannot commit to keeping in place the current version of a decades-old federal waiver that allows California to set emissions standards stricter than elsewhere in the United States.

In recent years, California regulators have used the waiver to force automakers to build more efficient vehicles, which has helped the state cut its greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks by nearly a third since 2009.

More than a dozen other states have adopted the California standard as part of their own efforts both to clean their air and fight global warming.

A trademark dispute involving an Asian American band that calls itself the Slants provoked a lively Supreme Court argument Wednesday over free speech, political correctness and the government’s refusal to sanction what it sees as a racial slur.

The justices struggled over whether the refusal by Congress and the Patent and Trademark Office’s to register trademarks that can be seen as disparaging people or their beliefs violates the 1st Amendment.

On the one hand, several justices said the government cannot discriminate against people solely because it does not like their message.

Justice Elena Kagan said the 1st Amendment has been understood to mean “you can’t discriminate based on a viewpoint.”  The trademark office was saying it would register trademarks for people who say “good things” about Asian Americans, but “not bad things,” she said.

Thousands of people will descend on the National Mall on Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington. If you’re one of them, here’s what you need to know.

The event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. with a rally featuring speeches and performances at the intersection of Independence Avenue and 3rd Street NW, near the U.S. Capitol.

At 1:15 p.m. the group will begin to march, following a route west on Independence Avenue SW, north on 14th Street SW and west on Constitution Avenue NW until 17th Street NW, where it will disband.

Participants can download an app for updates on the march or text INAUG to 888777 to stay in the loop about road closures, weather and safety.

Transportation

If you’re planning to drive, be prepared for heavy traffic and rolling road closures along portions of the march route, as well as all-day closures in the vicinity. The Metropolitan Police Department has a full list . For parking, your best bet is a Metro station lot or garage, free on the weekends.

If you’re planning to take public transportation, Metro will open at 5 a.m. Up to two dozen additional trains will be in service and no track work is scheduled. Consider buying a Metro card (called SmarTrip) in advance; these cards can be purchased at all metro stations as well as at some CVS and Giant stores .

You can also ride your bike; bike racks are available across downtown and the national mall.

For those requiring disability accommodations, enter through the ADA accessible route on 4th Street between C Street and Independence Avenue.

What to bring

March organizers are encouraging participants to check the weather and dress warmly, but to travel light. Here are some of the restrictions:

• No weapons of any kind, bicycles, folding chairs or flagpoles will be allowed in the rally or march areas. (Flags and banners without poles are OK.)
• All backpacks and bags may be subject to search, and only clear backpacks smaller than 17”x12”x6” will be permitted.
• People wishing to bring a meal can carry an additional large plastic (12”x12”x6”) or gallon bag.

For parents

Mothers who need baby bags or breast pumps can bring them as long as they fit in the appropriately sized clear backpacks. There will be lactation stations and bathrooms along the march route. Organizers also say marshals will be available to provide assistance, and they will set up a reunification tent to help connect parents and lost children.

For non-citizens

Participating in a peaceful march does not carry immigration consequences, according to the National Lawyers Guild, which has prepared a resource guide for immigrants attending the march . But engaging in disorderly conduct or civil disobedience could result in an arrest or conviction.

Can't make it to Washington?

Watch a live stream of the march and join us for updates from around the country.

Donald Trump’s campaign speeches were often ribald celebrations of grievance, the candidate unleashing invective about the ailments of the United States, his followers enthusiastically playing the call-and-response game:

“Build the wall!” “Lock her up!” “Drain the swamp!”

Rarely did his speeches follow a standard rhetorical pattern. Even in the last weeks of the campaign, when Trump was more disciplined about reading from a teleprompter, he would veer off into some of his favorite excised lines, demonstrating far more passion than when he was repeating what his staff wanted him to say.

The inauguration speech, coming Friday, is a whole different animal from the hot and heated rallies at which Trump commanded the podium during the campaign.

The newly sworn-in president, gazing west across a national Mall filled with supporters, has a chance to elegantly define what he wants from his term in office. Think John F. Kennedy’s rousing “Ask not…” passage in the 1961 inaugural.

Will Trump pull that off?

On Wednesday, Trump published on Twitter a picture he said showed him hard at work on his speech three weeks ago at the “Winter White House” in Florida. He gazed soberly at the camera, pen in hand over a legal tablet.

“He wants to talk about his vision of where he sees this country going and where we are right now, frankly,” Sean Spicer, the incoming press secretary, said at a press briefing on Thursday. “It is being 100% driven by him.

“He’s gotten input and advice from individuals, but this is something that he has found very dear and personal, and it is his opportunity to express…where he wants to take this country,” Spicer said.

It’s not clear whether Trump will adopt the inclusive, we’re-all-in-this-together tone common to incoming presidents on the biggest stage they will command.

Asked whether Trump would reach out to the majority of the country’s voters who did not side with him in the election, Spicer answered delicately.

“That’s a little bit in the eye of the beholder,” he said. The speech would include “shared values” and “where we can go as a country,” he added.

Trump's speech would be “very forward thinking, very inspiring, together-oriented,” Spicer said, adding that it would set the direction of his tenure.

In other words, stay tuned.

President Obama offered a parting message of hope in his final White House news conference on Wednesday, saying that although he recognizes there is evil in the world, “I think we’re going to be OK.”

“I believe that tragic things happen," he said. But when people work hard, “the world gets a little better each time.”

“That’s what this presidency is about,” he said. “This is what I really believe at my core. I think we’re going to be OK. We just have to fight for it.”

Although he framed them as a description of what he had told his daughters after this year's election, Obama's comments, likely to be among his last public statements from the White House, served as a message to his fellow Democrats.

Many on his side of the aisle have talked in near-apocalyptic tones in recent weeks about the impending Trump administration. Obama was more measured.

"I believe in this country. I believe in the American people. I believe that people are more good than bad," he said. "The only thing that’s the end of the world is the end of the world."

Obama said that he will speak out in the future in certain cases, especially if he sees Americans' "core values" under assault. Short of that, however, he said he needs to be quiet for a while and "not hear myself talk so darn much."

On the way out, though, he offered up his daughters Malia and Sasha as an example to follow. They were "disappointed" with the outcome of the election, the president said, adding that they had heeded their mother’s concerns about some of the negative things being said on the campaign trail.

But they haven’t become cynical, the president said, and they have not assumed that because their side didn’t win that America had rejected them or their values.

"And in that sense, he said, "they are representative of this generation that makes me really optimistic.”

A Senate committee has overwhelmingly approved James N. Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of Defense. The retired Marine general is the first of Trump's Cabinet picks to clear the crucial hurdle.

The GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted 26-1 in favor of Mattis on Wednesday. His name next goes to the full Senate, where he’s expected to win easy approval after Trump is sworn in on Friday.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), ranking member on the subcommittee on personnel, was the lone “no” vote. She cited her concerns about maintaining civilian control of the military.

Federal law requires anyone who has served in the military to be out of uniform for at least seven years before heading the Pentagon.

Mattis retired from the Marines in 2013 after serving more than four decades.

Congress passed a special law last week that allowed Mattis to circumvent that requirement and serve as secretary of Defense if he is confirmed by the Senate.

President Obama said he would regard any effort to round up and deport Dreamers as an attack on American "core values" that would cause him to speak out publicly.

The so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children, "for all practical purposes are American kids," Obama said at what is expected to be the final news conference of his tenure.

"The notion that we would just arbitrarily or because of politics punish those kids, when they didn't do something themselves ... would merit my speaking out," he said.

Obama's administration has protected more than 700,000 such young people from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Under the terms of that policy, Dreamers are allowed temporarily to live and work legally in the U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump has said that he plans to cancel the DACA program after he takes office on Friday, but he has not said what he would do with the Dreamers. His pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, retired Gen. John Kelly, said last week that he did not know what the administration would decide.

Obama said that he did not plan to comment on most political issues, at least for the next year, saying he wanted to "be quiet a little bit" and "not hear myself talk so darn much."

But, he said, he would make an exception for "certain issues or certain moments where I think our core values may be at stake."

President Obama said Wednesday that he doesn’t know whether he has influenced President-elect Donald Trump in what he described as several long and detailed conversations since but said he has tried.

“I don’t know if I have been convincing,” Obama said. “You’d have to ask him.”

“I have offered my best advice, counsel, about certain issues both foreign and domestic,” Obama told reporters during his final news conference in office. “My working assumption is, having won an election opposed to a number of my initiatives and certain aspects of my vision … it is appropriate for him to” make his own decisions.

Obama said he has advised Trump on a range of issues, including how to hire staff. The job is big, he said he told Trump, and he’ll have to rely on the people around him.

On substantive issues, Obama said, it’s too early to say whether he has been persuasive.

“Once he comes into office and looks at the complexities, that may lead him to some of the same conclusions that I arrived at once I got here," Obama predicted. "But I don’t think we’ll know until he has an actual chance to get sworn in and sit behind that desk.”