Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.)(Getty Images)

The Democratic chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee criticized Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FBI director Christopher Wray for failing to testify at the committee’s annual public hearing on threats facing the United States.

Mayorkas and Wray’s "refusal to speak publicly about their department’s work will only increase the concerns that many Americans have about our nation’s security at a challenging time, flout the Committee’s efforts to conduct responsible oversight, and will deal a serious blow to trust in our government," Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.), the committee’s chairman, said in a statement Thursday.

The duo’s failure to appear at the Senate hearing, now postponed, is a "shocking departure" from a 15-year tradition, Peters added.

A day earlier, Mayorkas and Wray skipped a similar House Homeland Security Committee hearing.

"Americans deserve transparent, public answers about the threats we face," Peters said, emphasizing that "it cannot be the practice of the Executive Branch to deny the public critical information and disregard Congress’s constitutionally recognized right to conduct oversight."

The FBI, in a statement to the Hill, said Wray would have testified before the committee in a classified setting but did not want to do so in a public hearing.

"FBI leaders … believe the Committee would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting," the statement reads.

The DHS also expressed a preference for a classified briefing, Fox News reported.

Peters said their reasoning was "unacceptable," arguing that the lack of a public hearing "robs the American people of critical information."

"The Department of Homeland Security put out a 40-page document talking about threats to the homeland," Peters continued. "There would be questions surrounding that document that members would want to ask."

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