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| State Department Facing Several Nomination Fights |
| 2011-06-15 |
| It's going to be a long summer for the State Department's legislative affairs bureau, which is about to find itself dealing with whole host of nomination battles on Capitol Hill. GOP senators were not shy last year about using their power to hold up nominees in order to extract concessions from the State Department, and will likely expand that strategy in the coming months. With significant turnover in Foggy Bottom and a contentious campaign season approaching, the Republican caucus in the Senate is planning to hold up several State Department appointments in order to wring concessions from the administration or torpedo certain nominations altogether. Some of the nomination fights are being previewed out in the open. For example, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ), announced last week on the Senate floor that he intends to stall the nomination of National Security Council Senior Director for Russia Mike McFaul as the next ambassador to Moscow unless the administrations answers his questions about missile defense cooperation with Russia. "The administration owes senators information about what National Security Staff member Michael McFaul ... meant when he briefed the press on May 26 that ‘we got a new signal on missile defense cooperation that as soon as I'm done here I'll be engaging on that with the rest of the U.S. government,'" Kyl said. "I'm concerned that my staff asked the National Security Staff about this over a week ago and we still have heard nothing back. I hope to hear back from the administration soon, especially if the administration expects the Senate to act promptly on Mr. McFaul's nomination." |
| Posted by:Sherry |