In Washington, Republican lawmakers have scheduled confirmation hearings for Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees next week—with at least six candidates set to testify to senators on the same day. It’s a move that critics say is a clear effort to prevent public scrutiny of Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks. The six scheduled to appear before Senate committees on January 11 are Betsy DeVos for Education, Elaine Chao for Transportation, John Kelly for Homeland Security, Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo for CIA and Jeff Sessions for attorney general. Critics say Sessions has failed to complete his Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, and are asking for a delay in his confirmation hearings. The crush of hearings comes on the same day that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has scheduled a rapid-fire series of budget items dubbed a “vote-o-rama” that will include votes related to repealing the Affordable Care Act. And topping it off, President-elect Donald Trump has scheduled his first news conference for January 11––the first since July, when he called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.