[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 1830]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         AMBASSADOR NOMINATIONS

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here today to speak about U.S. 
policy toward Iran.
  I wish to mention first that we are continuing to work on the issue 
of State Department nominees. Of course, my focus has been on the 
Swedish and Norwegian Ambassadors from our country to those two 
countries. We have now gone for 867 days without a confirmed ambassador 
to Norway and 476 days since the President nominated an ambassador for 
Sweden.
  I think we have made it very clear that nearly every Member in this 
Chamber does not have an issue with having a vote or even an issue with 
the qualifications of these nominees who went through the Foreign 
Relations Committee without objection. Senator Cotton himself said: I 
believe both nominees are qualified. We have significant interest in 
Scandinavia. My hope is that both nominees receive a vote in the Senate 
sooner rather than later.
  As we know, Senator Cruz has had various issues not related to the 
nominees or our two strong allies, Norway and Sweden. We are hoping we 
can find a way forward so that he lifts his hold and we can continue to 
move forward with the 11th and 12th biggest investors in the United 
States of America, those countries, Norway and Sweden, being able to 
have Ambassadors like the rest of Europe. Every other major Nation has 
an ambassador.
  I wish to thank Senator McConnell and Senator Reid and Senator Corker 
and Senator Cardin for their work on this issue. I am hoping to get 
this done as soon as possible.

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