Congressional Record, Volume 160 Issue 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)

[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5211-S5213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I rise in support of all of the career
Foreign Service officers whose nominations have been held up in the
Chamber until there is a crisis somewhere in the world, until there is
a Presidential or Vice Presidential trip to some part of the world that
suddenly demands our attention, and then miraculously holds are lifted
and nominees are approved.
On a Thursday, Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 crashed in eastern
Ukraine. On the following Monday, the Senate confirmed Michael Lawson
as the U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation
Organization. He had been pending before the Senate. His first day on
the job, his first time meeting his colleagues, he was forced to
grapple with this crisis.
In the last week or 10 days, two more plane crashes have occurred in
Taiwan and in Mali, an Algerian plane. Random events around the world
cannot determine when the Senate acts on nominees. We cannot continue
to follow a policy of confirmation by crisis. It took the President to
travel to Saudi Arabia--an important ally--and the Vice President to
travel to Chile for the Senate to confirm the nominees to those
countries. In the case of Chile, Ambassador Hammer was taken to his new
office in Santiago for his first day on the job on Air Force Two
because the Senate approved his nomination just before the Vice
President was to visit Chile. It should not require flying on Air Force
Two to get to your posting for your first day of work as a U.S.
Ambassador. Take the case of our Ambassador to Qatar. She waited for
months, and then Bergdahl was exchanged for five Guantanamo detainees
released to Qatar, and suddenly she was approved. It almost required
the President to be ``wheels up'' on Air Force One on his way to Riyadh
before we confirmed an Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
I repeat, the criteria for confirming nominees should not be
determined by a sudden just-breaking crisis, with the urgent need to
fill a vacant post. Confirmation-by-crisis is not a strategy. It is not
in the national security interests of the United States.
Now the Foreign Relations Committee has moved judiciously--in some
cases with record-setting speed--to confirm nominees. In the face of
obstructionism on the floor of the Senate, the committee has proven
that bipartisanship is not only possible but it can thrive when
American national security interests are put first.
It is my view that we must lift up our Ambassadors and their
families, not put them down. These individuals are serving our Nation.
Their families are sacrificing for our Nation. They deserve better. Our
career Foreign Service officers serve Democratic and Republican
Presidents. They should not, must not be treated as political pawns.
We cannot continue to allow the pulpits where we preach American
values to remain vacant. No Nation can listen to us if we are not
present to speak for ourselves. American leadership can only occur if
American leaders are present on the international stage.
The Senate standoff that has left so many career Foreign Service
nominees in political and personal limbo is damaging our credibility,
undermining our national security, and it has to end now.
I rise today for the career ambassadors who have not gotten the
decency of a vote in the Senate, career ambassadors who are waiting,
along with their families, for months, some more than a year, to take
their posts. They are trapped on the Executive Calendar, unable to
assume their appointed posts because the leadership on the Republican
side has chosen to hold them hostage as a political tool. They have
consciously chosen a strategy to do nothing, pass nothing, approve
nothing, and leave key diplomatic posts unfilled for months,
threatening national security and our ability to conduct foreign
policy.
I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session
to consider the following nominees: Calendar No. 524, Adam M. Scheinman
to be Special Representative of the President for Nuclear
Nonproliferation, with the rank of Ambassador; Calendar No. 533, Karen
Stanton to be the Ambassador to the Republic of Timor-Leste; Calendar
No. 536, Eric Schultz to be Ambassador to the Republic of Zambia;
Calendar No. 540, Donald Lu to be the Ambassador to the Republic of
Albania; Calendar No. 542, Amy Hyatt to be Ambassador to the Republic
of Palau; Calendar No. 544, John Hoover to be the Ambassador to the
Republic of Sierra Leone; Calendar No. 546, Matthew Harrington to be
the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho; Calendar No. 548, Thomas
Daughton to be the Ambassador to Namibia; Calendar No. 637, Arnold
Chacon to be Director General of the Foreign Service; Calendar No. 696,
Luis Moreno to be Ambassador to Jamaica; Calendar No. 699, Maureen

[[Page S5212]]

Cormack to be the Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina; Calendar No.
707, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, an Assistant Secretary of State of
African Affairs, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the
African Development Foundation; Calendar No. 898, Ted Osius to be
Ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam; Calendar No. 902, Gentry O.
Smith to be Director of the Office of Foreign Missions and have the
rank of Ambassador during his tenure; Calendar No. 927, Leslie Bassett
to be Ambassador to Paraguay; Calendar No. 953, George Albert Krol to
be Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan; Calendar No. 954, Marcia
Stephens Bloom Bernicat to be Ambassador to the People's Republic of
Bangladesh; Calendar No. 955, James D. Pettit to be Ambassador to the
Republic of Moldova; Calendar No. 956, John R. Bass to be Ambassador to
the Republic of Turkey; Calendar No. 957, Allan P. Mustard to be
Ambassador to Turkmenistan; Calendar No. 958, Todd Robinson to be
Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala; Calendar No. 961, Erica J.
Barks Ruggles to be Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda; Calendar No.
962, Brent Robert Hartley to be Ambassador to the Republic of Slovenia;
Calendar No. 966, Michele Jeanne Sison to be the Deputy Representative
of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank
and status of Ambassador, and the Deputy Representative of the United
States of America to the Security Council of the United Nations;
finally, Calendar No. 967, Michele Jeanne Sison to be Representative of
the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of
the United Nations, during her tenure of service as the Deputy
Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, I don't think he is finished with his
unanimous consent request.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I appreciate that.
Further, that their nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no
intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to
any of the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the
Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's
action and the Senate resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, reserving the right to object, we used to
pass ambassadors and all kinds of people en bloc like that. But we have
this nuclear option that the majority chose, so it takes a little
longer to do the whole process.
On that basis, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I don't know about nuclear options,
but I do know about national security.
When we have objections to some career ambassadors--I am not even
talking about other nominees who are equally as important to places in
the world where we face a challenge. But when I extract those out of
the list that are also pending before the Senate in critical places in
the world and just say, my God, if a career ambassador--someone who
serves under Democratic and Republican administrations and has
committed their life to the service of our country in the foreign
service--cannot get to their places, I don't understand.
I don't understand how we can actually object to places like
Guatemala where we are having the crisis that we just debated right
now. Wouldn't it be great to have a U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala to
direct the Guatemalan Government as to our concerns about how children
are coming here? Wouldn't it be great to have the Ambassador to Turkey
at a time when we have all of these challenges in the region, where
Turkey has a huge number of Syrian refugees. And we say we object to
those? Or Vietnam, where we are looking at a 123 nuclear agreement and
where we are concerned about what China is doing in the South China Sea
as it ultimately challenges Vietnam in international waters for
drilling purposes? And the list goes on and on.
So let me at least try some. If I can't do them as a bloc, let's see
if we can get somebody confirmed here at the end of the day to critical
positions.
So let me ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive
session to consider this following nomination: Calendar No. 968, John
Tefft to be Ambassador to Russia, a career ambassador.
Now, imagine if we cannot send a United States Ambassador to Russia
in the midst of the enormous challenges.
So I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive
session to consider nomination Calendar No. 968, John Tefft, Ambassador
to Russia; that the nomination be confirmed; that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; that there be no
intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to
that nomination; that any related statements be printed in the Record;
that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and
the Senate then resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, this is the procedure the majority set up.
And the majority is going to be stuck with their decision to delay
people, thinking they could speed them up and take away some of the
minority rights.
So I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, this is not a procedure the majority
set up. The procedure that is being set up is one where career nominees
and critical nominees are being held on the floor as a procedure that
the Republicans have decided to do.
Let me try once again. Let's see whether there is a more important
place than Russia.
I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session
to consider the following nomination: Mark Lippert to be Ambassador to
South Korea, Calendar No. 893; that the nomination be confirmed; that
the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table
with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be made
in order to that nomination; that any related statements be printed in
the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's
action, and the Senate then resume legislative business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, this is a political appointment, not a
career appointment. If I objected to a career appointment, I certainly
object to a political appointment.
So I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. MENENDEZ. It is true it is a political appointment, but to the
Republic of South Korea. At a time when we are facing challenges in the
South China Sea, where there is a dispute between China and Korea,
where we have critical interests, where we are dealing with North
Korea, we can't have an Ambassador to South Korea?
Let me just say that I could go through a list of critical countries.
And it is pretty amazing to me. I have some of my colleagues who have
come to the floor to talk about national security. Well, national
security isn't only about having a trigger and a gun. National security
is also about having an ambassador in a country to ultimately press our
case and our concerns as it relates to our bilateral relationship with
that country.
So places like Russia, which was objected to, places like South
Korea, places like Guatemala, where we are having the crisis, and a
whole bunch of African countries that were in the career list--we are
going to have the African leader come here next Monday and Tuesday, but
we are not going to have ambassadors to a whole bunch of their
countries--career ambassadors to a whole bunch of their countries. That
is not in the national interests and security of the United States.
I hope that after having waited quite some time in order to finally
get to this point where I felt the necessity to come to the floor and
ask for unanimous consent, that instead of the trickle that we
occasionally get because there is a crisis and therefore there is a
response to the crisis, that

[[Page S5213]]

we can avoid responding by crisis and having people in places that
maybe would help us to ensure that the crisis doesn't take place.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
Mr. CARPER. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. MENENDEZ. I would be happy to yield.
Mr. CARPER. Would the chairman tell us again the name of the
ambassador nominated by the President to be Ambassador to Guatemala?
Mr. MENENDEZ. The gentleman who is nominated, a career nominee to be
the Ambassador to Guatemala is Todd D. Robinson.
Mr. CARPER. I would say to my colleagues, as chairman of the homeland
security committee, I have been down to a number of Central American
countries--Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, El Salvador. If there is
anybody that needs a U.S. ambassador down there, it is Guatemala. We
see all these young people, not so young people, coming to this
country, trying to get in this country. The reason they are coming up
here is there is no hope--no economic hope, crime, lack of
opportunity--and we have no ambassador there. We haven't had an
ambassador there for months.
I would just make a plea for the chairman to make a unanimous consent
if only for the Ambassador to Guatemala. And I would just plead with my
colleague, my friend from Wyoming, not to object.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I say to my distinguished colleague from Delaware that
I already included the Ambassador to Guatemala in my list and there was
objection. If the Senator from Wyoming, who I believe is not doing this
in his own course but on behalf of his leadership, has an indication
that he would accept that, I would be happy to do it; otherwise, I
think we would further not be able to achieve it.
Mr. CARPER. I would ask, would the Senator one more time make the
unanimous consent request for Todd Robinson.
Mr. MENENDEZ. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
executive session to consider the following nomination: Calendar No.
958, Todd D. Robinson to be the Ambassador to Guatemala; that the
nomination be confirmed; that the motion to reconsider be made and laid
upon the table; that no intervening action or debate or further motions
be in order to that nomination; that any related statements be printed
in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the
Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. ENZI. Madam President, reserving the right to object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. We have been through this nomination and the others before.
There is a procedure that was set up that is recognized now by both
sides but that our side feels forced into because of the nuclear option
where the other side broke the rules in order to change the rules. And
the way that works, the majority leader is still the one that has every
power within this body--except the Congressional Review Act--and he
hasn't chosen to bring these up in the normal order, instead asking to
bring them up en bloc.
My college roommate was a career ambassador, and I helped him get
assignments and brought a lot of people through en bloc at the same
time. But that was before we had the nuclear option.
So on that basis, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I will close on this. Look, the
reality is that if each of these ambassadors was going to be brought up
and had to go through cloture and go through the whole process of time
or the debate time that would be attributed to each one of them, we
would spend the rest of this congressional session doing exactly that.
That would not help our national security interests in terms of getting
these people in place.
I want to get these people in place. I have limited the requests to
countries that have career individuals and to countries that also are
critical for our national security. I just hope that, in the national
interest of the United States, we can come to a better position at some
other time.
Madam President, I yield the floor.

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