​Watch Replay: Rick Perry's Confirmation Hearing For Energy Secretary​

AUSTIN, TX — The U.S. Senate nomination hearing for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy under a Donald Trump administration was held Thursday morning.

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources staged the hearing at 9:30 a.m. EST at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, chair and ranking member, respectively, of the committee, were scheduled to provide the opening remarks.

Watch the complete hearing here:

So far in the process toward assembling a Cabinet for President-elect Trump, some hearings have proved contentious — particularly the ones for Betsy DeVos, the Michigan school choice advocate that is Trump's pick for secretary of Education that occurred on Tuesday, and the hearing for Rep. Tom Price for secretary of Health and Human Services on Wednesday.

Thursday's hearing for Perry promises to be just as contentious, for myriad reasons, and potentially awkward. Perry will likely be interrogated about discerning his understanding of the inner workings of a federal agency for which he seeks confirmation to lead. He also likely will be quizzed on his willingness to actually serve in the position rather than seeking to secure it in order to turn around and abolish it.

To understand this conjecture on the hearing's machinations, one needs to revisit the 2012 presidential campaign, in which Perry was a candidate.

While Texans are well familiar with Perry — who was, after all, the longest-running governor in state history, serving from December 2000 to January 2015 — he first came into national prominence during his 2011 bid for the presidency. In what's become as his "oops moment," Perry was unable to come up with the name of the third federal agency he'd seek to abolish should he become president — the same Energy Department he now seeks to lead.

"It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone:

Commerce, Education, and...the, uh...what's the third one there? Let's see...." Perry said during a Republican primary debate. "Commerce, Education and, uh, the uh...."

His then-rival for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, tried to help him out, wondering if it was the Environmental Protection Agency he'd seek to abolish. While he later told reporters he meant to invoke the Department of Energy, he was never able to recall it during the actual debate. "The third agency of government I would do away with: The Education, the, uh, Commerce. And, let's see. I can't, the third, sorry. Oops," he said, his voice trailing off.

Despite that nationally broadcast flub, Perry again ran for president last year before suspending his campaign in September.

The nomination hearing also comes one day after a damning report by the New York Times raising further questions about Perry's understanding of the mission of an agency he's been tapped to lead by his political party's standard-bearer. "'Learning Curve’ as Rick Perry Pursues a Job He Initially Misunderstood," the report is headlined.

"When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state," the New York Times piece begins.

It would be days later, according to the report, that Perry would realize the job would be much more than the envisioned ambassadorship touting oil and gas that he had envisioned:. "In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal," the Times reported.

Perry also holds the distinction of being the only one of the nominees to a Cabinet position so far that has participated as a contestant in the television show "Dancing with the Stars," where he appeared last year. In what may or may not be a portent of his performance at the Senate hearing, Perry was eliminated from the show in the second round of competition.

Related files:

• Perry Questionnaire.pdf (160.4 KBs)
• Witness List 1-19-17 SENR Cmte Perry Nomination Hrg.pdf (24.3 KBs)

>>> Official State of Texas photo of Rick Perry above