Republican senators have held up nominations to make demands on the Biden administration unrelated to the nominees' qualifications. Officials say stalling harms national security.
penalize all international firms and individuals involved in the construction of a Russian pipeline to Europe.
Others included the top officials in charge of various regions — the assistant secretaries of State for Latin America, Europe and parts of Asia — as well as consular services at a time of a massive backlog in the issuance of U.S. passports and visas because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eric Rubin, who heads the American Foreign Service Assn., the union for diplomats, said the overall approval process for numerous agencies had been notoriously slow but was particularly egregious for the State Department.But he also says there is blame to go around. Senate approval has been riddled with delays, but Biden also had been slow to nominate many people. And it comes at a time of multiple worldwide crises when “we cannot afford to coast,” he said.
In an earlier meeting, Menendez and Cruz got into what was nearly a shouting match over what the Democrat described as the Republican’s delay tactics. Biden administration officials say the pipeline was 95% complete by the time they came to office, making sanctions now pointless. In addition, they said, further punishment risked alienating a key ally — Germany — with whom the Biden team wants to repair relations damaged under President Trump. The administration placed waivers on numerous sanctions imposed by Trump, essentially lifting the measures, a step that infuriated Cruz and other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho briefly held up at the committee level the nomination of Christopher Lu, an attorney and former Labor Department official, tapped for ambassador to the United Nations for management and reform, considering him too lenient on the U.N.
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