President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA director has had the start of his confirmation hearing delayed one day.
Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) will now face the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Thursday, according to a Tuesday announcement from the panel.
A spokeswoman for Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-S.C.) told McClatchy DC that “a mutual accommodation was reached” to bump the hearing. Burr spokeswoman Becca Watkins also said Pompeo had completed a necessary questionnaire and financial disclosures before the announced delay.
{mosads}Copies of Pompeo’s paperwork will be posted on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s website early Thursday, Watkins added in an email.
Pompeo will likely face questions about Trump’s plans for the intelligence community during his hearing.
Reports emerged last week that Trump is crafting plans to restructure at least two of the nation’s top intelligence agencies.
Trump reportedly wants staffing cuts at the CIA’s Virginia headquarters and more of its personnel assigned to field posts. The president-elect also wants the office of the director of national intelligence (DNI) to be overhauled.
Trump hopes to shrink the DNI as he believes the agency — which was established in 2004 as a response to the 9/11 terror attacks — is now bloated and politicized.
Pompeo will likely also field questions Thursday about his positions on torture and government surveillance.
Outgoing ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), for example, has clashed with Pompeo on “enhanced interrogation techniques” in the past.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the panel’s most outspoken civil liberties advocate, has called Pompeo’s stance on torture “deeply troubling.”
Pompeo’s enthusiasm for expanding the government’s surveillance capabilities is another likely area of focus.
The Kansas lawmaker has repeatedly urged a return to the bulk collection of U.S. call data curtailed by Congress last year.