WASHINGTON — Some of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s most prominent cabinet nominees — with their millions in assets and complex business arrangements — are moving unusually slowly through the government’s arduous financial disclosure examinations, threatening the quick start promised for the new administration and raising Democratic concerns that their confirmations could short-circuit customary ethical safeguards.
On Thursday, the ranking Democrats on all 16 Senate committees released a joint statement saying they would block confirmation votes until each nominee of Mr. Trump had cleared an F.B.I. background check, completed a financial disclosure statement and ethics agreement approved by the federal Office of Government Ethics, and “satisfied reasonable requests for additional information.”
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