Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence for the final months of Trump’s first term, goes before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The former Texas congressman is in line to lead the nation's premier spy agency, responsible for foreign covert operations and collecting data on U.S. adversaries.

The U.S. Senate energy panel said on Monday the nomination hearing for President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, will take place on Thursday instead of Tuesday, blaming a "bureaucratic delay" with a federal ethics office.