[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 157 (Monday, September 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6449-S6450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, pursuant to the comments I was just 
making a few minutes ago, let me move directly to my request. I ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of 
Calendar No. 335, Donald Lu to be Assistant Secretary of State for 
South Asian Affairs, and that the Senate vote on the nomination without 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. CRUZ. Madam President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, reserving the right to object, I want to 
make a few remarks on Senator Menendez's request for unanimous consent 
on the nomination of Donald Lu to be Assistant Secretary of State for 
the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and also on the 
nomination of Brett Holmgren to be the Assistant Secretary of State for 
Intelligence and Research.
  The reality is that had these nominees been confirmed in August, they 
would have done nothing to stop the administration's disastrous 
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
  President Biden bears responsibility for the catastrophe that has 
unfolded in Afghanistan. President Biden repeatedly ignored reasonable 
advice and the intelligence on what was happening on the ground in the 
runup to the disastrous withdrawal.
  He abandoned the Bagram Airfield well before August, setting the 
stage for the chaos at the Kabul airport. He wasn't even listening to 
his staff on what needed to be done on Afghanistan.
  Instead, he imposed an arbitrary deadline for political purposes, 
with disastrous results.
  I am not going to object to consent on this individual, Mr. Lu, and 
on Mr. Holmgren, in a moment, that Senator Menendez will ask for, but 
let's be clear. The administration has tried to play a blame game to 
deflect blame for their absolute failure to conduct a reasonable and 
rational drawdown, to deflect blame for President Biden's decision to 
abandon Bagram to the Taliban, to deflect blame for President Biden's 
indefensible decision to give the Taliban a list of names of Americans 
and Afghans who are now very much in harm's way and in jeopardy because 
of the foolishness and the manifest incompetence of this 
administration.
  None of the nominees I have holds on would have made one difference 
in what happened in Afghanistan. And it is difficult to believe that 
even my Democratic colleagues believe, political talking points 
notwithstanding, how, for instance, the Assistant Secretary for 
Educational and Cultural Affairs could have stopped President Biden 
from gift-wrapping Bagram Airfield and giving it to the Taliban.
  It is also important to provide a little bit of background on why 
these holds are in place in the first place.
  President Biden is not following the law. He is refusing to follow 
the law which mandates the imposition of sanctions on Nord Stream 2. 
Those sanctions had succeeded, had halted Nord Stream 2 in its place, 
and President Biden transformed an incredible foreign policy victory 
into an incredible foreign policy defeat.
  When President Biden came into office, he willfully and brazenly 
disregarded the law, and he allowed Nord Stream 2 to continue on its 
road to completion, which was, in effect, a multibillion-dollar gift to 
Vladimir Putin at the expense of Europe's security and at the expense 
of American national security.
  However, there is still time to stop Nord Stream 2 if we act quickly. 
A pipeline that isn't 100 percent complete is effectively zero percent 
complete. And I am not going to stop working to halt Nord Stream 2 to 
stop Russia and to prevent Vladimir Putin from economically 
blackmailing our European allies and threatening American jobs.
  These consents--and, more broadly, what the administration is engaged 
in--is a blame game trying to distract blame from their own actions. 
But it is worth noting that I have offered to lift my holds from the 
beginning. And, indeed, over a month ago, I extended the offer to 
Treasury Secretary Yellen, to the National Security Advisor in the 
White House, and to Senator Menendez that I would lift these holds--
lift the holds on Treasury nominees and lift the holds on State 
Department career nominees if the administration either imposed 
sanctions under CAATSA, the Countering American Adversaries Through 
Sanctions Act, or if they waived those sanctions in such a way that it 
would trigger Congress having an override vote.
  On August 5, I extended that offer directly to Secretary Yellen. 
Unfortunately, the administration hasn't acted on it. They have decided 
that their policy of gift-wrapping a multibillion-dollar pipeline for 
Vladimir Putin and Russia was so important that they wanted to deny 
Congress even a vote on it under CAATSA.
  CAATSA was passed for precisely these circumstances--for an 
administration that refused to follow U.S. law

[[Page S6450]]

and refused to comply with tough sanctions on Russia. That is what the 
advocates of CAATSA argued. This is a mechanism to force an 
administration to obey U.S. law and stand up to Russia.
  Now, at the time, the Democrats believed they were speaking about the 
Trump administration, but the principles behind CAATSA apply equally to 
Joe Biden's defying the law and giving this gift to Vladimir Putin at 
the expense of U.S. national security interests.
  This administration has had a path for months to clear these 
nominees. It has declined to exercise that path. That path remains 
before it, nonetheless, because this nominee and the next one are 
directly relevant to cleaning up the mess that the Biden administration 
has made in Afghanistan.
  I do not object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the nomination.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Donald Lu, of 
California, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of 
Minister-Counselor, to be Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian 
Affairs.
  Thereupon, the Senate proceeded to consider the nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Lu nomination?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all 
without any intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in 
order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination 
be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately 
notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I clearly do not share the views of my 
colleague from Texas, but for the sake of the Senate's work, I will 
reserve responding to it for another time.

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