Posted on 08/11/2021 4:52:13 AM PDT by RandFan
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blocked the quick confirmation of dozens of State Department nominees on Wednesday morning, guaranteeing that they will stay in limbo until next month when the Senate returns from its summer break.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) tried to get the nominations confirmed at the end of an all-night session before the Senate left Washington, D.C., until mid-September.
In a floor back-and-forth that lasted roughly 50 minutes, and wrapped just before 6 a.m., Menendez and then Murphy went one-by-one through the list of State Department nominees trying to get consent to confirm them.
Each time they were blocked by Cruz, though Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) also got in on the action and blocked one of the nearly 30 nominees: Brian Nichols's nomination to be an assistant secretary of State for western hemisphere affairs.
"I know the hour is late, but we have nearly 30 highly qualified foreign affairs and development nominees who are languishing on the Senate floor. We have to confirm these nominees to fully equip the United States to pursue our foreign policy objectives," Menendez said as he kicked off the floor slog.
Cruz has been slow-walking the nominations until the Biden administration imposes congressionally mandated sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will allow Russia to deliver natural gas to Germany and Europe.
The Biden administration in May issued a sanctions waiver on one entity and three individuals related to the pipeline's construction, which is more than 90 percent complete.
"All of the senators in this chamber know precisely why these nominees have not moved forward, and the reason is because the Biden administration is currently engaged in open defiance of the United States Congress," Cruz said on Wednesday morning.
"Vladimir Putin desperately wants the pipeline completed. If the pipeline is completed it will give billions of dollars to Putin to use for malign efforts in Europe and throughout the world," Cruz said, referring to the Russian leader.
Cruz's actions don't prevent the Senate from eventually confirming the nominees, but Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will be required to eat up limited floor time in order to do so.
Cruz said on Wednesday morning that he would lift his blockade, and let the nominees be confirmed, if the Senate passed legislation imposing sanctions over the pipeline. But Menendez objected to Cruz's bill, noting it hadn't gone through the Foreign Relations Committee, and Cruz, in turn, kept blocking Menendez and Murphy from being able to confirm the nominees.
The State Department and Senate Democrats have called out Cruz for holding up the confirmation votes on key members of Biden’s national security team.
Murphy, on Wednesday, warned that Cruz's tactics could be replicated by Democrats under a GOP administration.
"This place just becomes unworkable if every single senator holds up this many nominees over one particular policy disagreement. And this tactic will be utilized by Democrats when there is a Republican in the White House," Murphy said.
In addition to the Nichols's nomination being blocked by Lee, Cruz blocked quick confirmation of nearly 30 nominees including six nominees to be assistant secretaries of State and several ambassador nominations.
I see Ted is beginning his 2024 posturing.
Desantis/cruz would be acceptable, with maybe speaker trump just to make demonrats heads explode
Posturing or not, it’s the right thing to do.
Let me know when Ted does something about the superspreader event going on at the border. Everything else is blather.
Do like Chucky did. Every nominee requires the full floor time for every vote.
Absolutely, it’s just a damn shame that Ted was MIA during Trump’s term when he was under fire from all directions. I guess he had better things to do.
We have an illegitimate administration.
The GOP must block ALL actions from moving forward until Trump is reinstated as the true POTUS and all the coup plotters put in prison.
Nothing less will suffice.
Goldman Sachs Ted plays sad pr games and so does
Mumbai Mike Lee as they let India floods our country and steals our tech jobs and kids future .
The new Budget has Amnesty for 30 million .
These Chamber of Crony capitalist frauds will hide .
I watched it; that was the Ted Cruz I wanted to become the President, before Trump took over and Cruz started to look like a whiny snot. At least he understands what it takes to fight the Disloyal Opposition, rather than rolling over.
Granted, even a month ago would have been so much better.
Ditto.
One of the few laudable actions of former SoS Rex Tillerson was his disdain for the State Department and his decision to leave several thousand desks empty after post-election turnover. He could see immediately how useless and counterproductive the bloated corrupt bureaucracy really is.
Neither voted for it or to advance it. Yous should save your ire for senators like Cornyn who do play the game.
That will really irritate Flimsey Grahamnesty, he wants to vote for every lunatic his friend Senile Joe appoints.
Don’t put ineligible candidates on my ballot or I will be forced to sit it out or vote third party.
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