Did the mere announcement that Nick Shirley was going to testify at a U.S. Senate hearing cause Democrat senators to “hide” rather than attend a committee hearing on July 17, 2026?
What was the committee?
The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, whose core responsibilities and duties include:
DHS Oversight: Managing legislation and oversight for the Department of Homeland Security. This excludes issues like the Coast Guard, the TSA, and immigration, which are handled by other committees.
Government Operations: Studying how to make all federal agencies run better and more efficiently.
Civil Service: Overseeing the federal workforce, including government employee benefits, pay, and rules.
Federal Postal Service: Managing rules and operations for the United States Postal Service.
National Archives: Overseeing the National Archives and Records Administration.
The Census: Supervising the taking of the decennial U.S. Census and the collection of other federal statistics.
Investigations: Acting as a major investigative body for the Senate, including the power to issue subpoenas.
The Senate Hearing
“Exposing Fraud in America” was the focus of the hearing scheduled by Senator Rand Paul (R, Ky).
All the Republican committee members, which included Ron Johnson (WI), James Lankford (OK), Rick Scott (FL), Josh Hawley (MO), Bernie Moreno (OH), Joni Ernst (IA), and Ashley Moody (FL) attended.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) ranking Democrat on the committee, left after the hearing’s opening statements and just after asking a handful of questions.
None of the other Democrat members on the committee, which included John Fetterman (PA), Maggie Hassan (NH), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Ruben Gallego (AZ), Andy Kim (NJ), and Elissa Slotkin (MI), attended any part of the hearing.
Were they “hiding?”
From what or whom?
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