Business meeting to consider the nominations of Anjani Sinha, of Florida, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore, Jeffrey Bartos, of Pennsylvania, to be Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform, with the Rank of Ambassador, and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Lynda Blanchard, of Alabama, to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, with the rank of Ambassador, Kimberly Guilfoyle, of Florida, to be Ambassador to Greece, and Jennifer Locetta, of Florida, to be Alternate Representative of the United States of America for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations, with the rank of Ambassador, and to serve concurrently and without additional compensation as an Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations, all of the Department of State; to be immediately followed by hearings to examine reforming the State Department to compete in the 21st century.
Committee on Foreign Relations
2025-07-16
Source: Congress.gov
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United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will come to order this morning. We're going to do two things. We're going to have business meeting and voting on five nominees, and then we're going to proceed to the hearing on State Department reorganization. So with that, we will start with, and we've agreed that we're going to have a roll call vote on each of these. So we'll start with the nomination of John. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. Senator Sheehan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to briefly point out that all of the appointees this morning are political appointees. Obviously, every president has the right to nominate whoever they like, but I think it's notable that we're six months into the administration, and the committee has only received four career nominees, none of whom have moved forward. And given the personnel cuts and the lack of Senate-confirmed ambassadors at posts where China is active, I hope that we will advance those career nominees. I hope Secretary Rubio and the White House are listening and that they will prioritize those career nominees so we can get people on their posts throughout the world. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Shaheen. Mr. Chairman? Excuse me. Just a second, Senator Cornyn. I think the criticism that we need to move forward. The career people, more career people is well taken. Obviously, the president does have the ability to move the political ones, but with all due respect, we're having a little trouble moving them on the floor anyway. We're backed up 90, so that's my criticism. And I have made specific requests that we move more career, because at least we ought to make the team, the president's team, as big as we can, where we have modest agreement on who should hold those seats. So thank you for that.
Senator Cornyn. Mr. Chairman, you made my point. If our Democratic friends would simply cooperate more with us on expediting the confirmation of non-controversial nominees across the floor, we could get a whole lot more people on post. It's really important to have the president's representative as a U.S. ambassador in a number of these countries around the country, and this is not doing anything except delaying those, and it's hurting the country. And I just wish our colleagues would do what traditionally we've done, and that is to to agree to voice votes or to expedite non-controversial nominees. I understand they're going to pick their fights and more power to them, but I think it's a two-way street and I wish they would take that to heart. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Wheaton. Of course, Senator Shaheen.
Well, certainly I have been one of those who has urged that we move nominees to ambassadorships around the world as expeditiously as possible and urge people to vote against them if you don't like them. But we need to move these people so we can get them on post. I would hope that maybe we can agree that if we have a number of career ambassadors, we can move them and think about who else we might be able to move as part of that package. But I would hope that we would make an effort to do this on both sides of the aisle. Thank you. Thank you, Senator. And I have discussed that with the President, with State Department and others, that the more we get, the easier it is to make a deal to move them along. And we're going to continue to try to do that and move them as quickly as we can. Thank you, everybody, for your thoughts on that. So let's move to the first nom, Johnny Sina, Florida, to be Ambassador of Extra— Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Singapore. Is there a motion?
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