Senate Democrats delay vote on Trump Treasury pick Mnuchin

Senate grills Treasury pick on foreclosure record
Senate grills Treasury pick on foreclosure record

A Senate committee vote on Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin has been pushed to Tuesday morning.

The Senate Finance Committee had been scheduled to vote Monday night on whether to send Mnuchin's nomination to the full Senate.

The vote was widely expected to help Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker and Hollywood movie producer, clear a major hurdle toward confirmation.

But Democrats on the committee used a procedural mechanism to prevent Monday's meeting from taking place, according to a Democratic leadership aide.

Specifically, they asked to postpone the hearing so they could attend a candlelight vigil protesting President Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, said Rachel McCleery, a spokeswoman for the committee Democrats.

During his Jan. 19 confirmation hearing, Democrats grilled Mnuchin over OneWest, which has been accused of aggressive foreclosures and discriminating against minority borrowers.

Related: Trump Treasury pick: 'I have been maligned'

Mnuchin insisted that regulators, not the bank, were to blame for a series of foreclosures on widows, military families and other homeowners during the Great Recession.

"Since I was first nominated to serve as Treasury secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others' hardships in order to earn a buck," Mnuchin said. "Nothing could be further from the truth."

He also said Congress should raise the federal government's borrowing limit, known as the debt ceiling, "sooner rather than later."

Related: Trump taps ex-Goldman banker Mnuchin for Treasury post

If he's confirmed, Mnuchin will join four other Cabinet nominees who have cleared committee and are awaiting full votes in the Senate: Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Elaine Chao for transportation secretary, Ben Carson for housing secretary and Wilbur Ross for commerce secretary.

Defense Secretary James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley were all confirmed in the first few days of Trump's presidency.

--CNN's Ted Barrett and CNNMoney's Chris Isidore contributed to this story.

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