WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is frustrated by the U.S. Senate’s slow pace in confirming the nominations of people to serve in key roles in the Biden administration and as envoys overseas, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.
“What’s the holdup?” Psaki told reporters, noting that nearly 275 of President Joe Biden’s nominees were awaiting confirmation, including many who were “non-controversial” and had “a lot of Republican support.
“We are frustrated over the slow pace of confirmations,” she said, noting that Biden had submitted more nominees to the Senate than his predecessor Donald Trump at this point in his tenure, and a comparable number to former President Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The Senate early on Wednesday confirmed the nomination of Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado and interior secretary, to be the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, only the second of Biden’s 57 ambassador nominees to be confirmed, in addition to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Biden’s envoy to the United Nations.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan think tank, said the Senate confirmed a total of 11 nominees on Aug. 11 before adjourning, bringing the total of Biden’s nominees confirmed to 144 of the 442 nominations formally submitted.
While Democrats control the Senate, the confirmation process has been slowed by a number of holds placed by Republicans, including Ted Cruz, to register their frustration over a variety of issues, including the Biden administration’s handling of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline being built from Russia to Germany.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also raised concerns about the halting approval of foreign service nominees.
By the time of the August recess during Obama’s first year in office, the Senate had confirmed 304 of 430 total nominees. Trump had 130 of his 308 nominations confirmed by the same period.
Psaki urged the Senate to act more quickly, citing the important role that ambassadors and other nominees for key jobs at the Treasury Department and other agencies play in governing.
“It’s important for us … to have qualified ambassadors who are confirmed by the Senate to lead our country and represent our country,” she said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Alistair Bell)
