Blinken Calls Blockade of Diplomatic Nominees a National Security Risk
Last month, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said he would hold up Senate action on all State Department nominees until the Biden administration provided him with documents related to the origins of the coronavirus, which he says leaked from a Chinese laboratory. Other Republican senators, including Ted Cruz of Texas and J.D. Vance of Ohio, have also blocked nominees for different reasons.
“These delays are undermining our national security,” Mr. Blinken told reporters during an unusual appearance at the State Department’s daily news media briefing. The overwhelming majority of the stalled State Department nominees are career diplomats, and more than a third have been awaiting votes for about a year or more, he added.
Mr. Blinken said that no one had questioned the diplomats’ qualifications. “They are being blocked for leverage on other unrelated issues.” He said that stand-ins for empty ambassador posts, like officials with the titles of chargé d’affaires, lacked the same access and influence as ambassadors in foreign capitals.
A Senate Democratic aide said the number of blocked nominees who have been cleared by the Foreign Relations Committee was even higher — totaling 50 — when a dozen envoys to bodies like the World Health Organization and the International Monetary Fund were considered. The aide spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The aide noted that the vacancies put the United States at a disadvantage in its global competition with China, which many Republicans call their top foreign policy priority. Beijing has ambassadors in dozens of foreign capitals where the United States lacks them, the aide said.
Source: The New York Times
