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[Pages S1892-S1893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF GENERAL JOHN ABIZAID
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I come to the floor to correct the
record concerning statements the Senate majority leader made yesterday
morning,
[[Page S1893]]
in which he claimed that GEN John Abizaid's nomination to be Ambassador
to Saudi Arabia ``is being held up.''
Allow me to ease the majority leader's concerns. Far from being
``held up,'' the Foreign Relations Committee, with my full support, has
been extremely diligent in taking up General Abizaid's nomination; he
appeared on the very first committee nominations hearing of the 116th
Congress, and his nomination is advancing through the regular committee
process expeditiously. I look forward to his approval by the committee
and, hopefully, a speedy confirmation. As with all nominees, his final
confirmation is under the control of the majority leader.
I am concerned that the majority leader has an inaccurate view of the
nominations situation facing the Foreign Relations Committee. He stated
yesterday that ``if we want to solve problems in the Middle East,
through diplomacy, we'll need to confirm diplomats.'' Unfortunately, we
cannot confirm diplomats that we do not have.
It took 23 months before the Trump administration bothered to
nominate General Abizaid, leaving a gaping hole in our diplomatic
posture to Saudi Arabia and the region. It is possible that this
failure of leadership is the result of the President believing that his
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is capable of doing this job from the White
House.
Regardless of the reason, Saudi Arabia is not an isolated example. It
took even longer, over 2 years, before the Trump administration
nominated a candidate to be U.S. Ambassador to Turkey. We are now 26
months into the Trump administration, and we still lack ambassadorial
nominees to critical countries like Egypt, Pakistan, and our close
ally, Jordan. This failure is a reckless abdication of a constitutional
responsibility that is essential to projecting American power abroad.
There is only one person responsible for this failure: President Trump;
yet the majority leader appears to be curiously oblivious to that fact.
Let me be clear: When the committee has received nominations, we have
worked with efficiency and diligence to vet and advance those
nominations. I have devoted my time and staff resources to ensure this
because of my strong belief that the State Department, USAID, and other
foreign affairs agencies must be appropriately staffed. We cannot
promote our foreign policy, protect American citizens, and advocate for
American businesses without a robust diplomatic corps. In the 115th
Congress, the committee reported 169 nominations. I reject any
assertion that we have not done our part to ensure that the State
Department is appropriately staffed.
All too often, however, the committee has received nominations late
or not at all.
There is, unfortunately, there is another severe problem that we
cannot ignore with regard to this administration's nominees. Delays in
advancing Trump political nominees is largely due to poor vetting by
this administration. When the President nominates and renominates
individuals with restraining orders for threats of violence, who
engaged in incidents that should, frankly, mean they never should have
been nominated, or made material omissions, sometimes on a repeated
basis, in their nomination materials, the Foreign Relations Committee
must do our due diligence on behalf of the American people. Someone has
to. My staff and I have had to spend significant additional time on
vetting because of the White House's negligence or incompetence.
The United States and our allies continue to face tremendous
challenges around the world. We must continue to lead on the
international stage and work in collaboration with international
partners to achieve our shared security goals, but to have our
diplomats in place, they must be nominated in a timely fashion and
vetted properly. Despite the majority leader's confusion on this issue,
that is the real hold-up here.
____________________