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White House officials are concerned about the lack of Senate confirmed appointments under President Biden compared to previous administrations, reports said Friday.
Biden holds the worst record for the number of confirmed appointments in recent history and has not seen a single ambassador inducted eight months in his presidency.
There are growing concerns that the president is lagging behind Donald Trump in the number of confirmed appointments and that he is nearly 200 appointments behind Barack Obama and George W. Bush, Politico first reported.
US AND GERMANY THREATEN RUSSIA WITH SANCTIONS IF PIPELINE NORD STREAM 2 IS USED AS “WEAPON”
While the administration has been slow to see the nominations pushed by the upper house, Biden has also put more candidates for Senate consideration than his predecessor since taking office, a spokesperson told Fox News. of the White House.
Only 124 of Biden’s 405 candidates were confirmed by the Senate, and only 8 of 88 State Department candidates were nominated.
None of the more than 60 candidate ambassadors has received confirmation from the Senate.
By comparison, 126 of Trump’s 308 candidates were appointed in August of his first term. The Obama administration has confirmed 243 out of 430 candidates and Bush has seen 291 of 448 nominees so far.
The office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz was the contributing factor to the lack of filled ambassadorial posts.
“Senator Cruz has a grip on all state departments [nominees]a Schumer spokesperson told Fox News.
Cruz, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, blocked dozens of candidates from the confirmation process to protest the overturning of Biden’s sanction on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline last month.
UNITED STATES AND GERMANY HOLD AGREEMENT TO AUTHORIZE RUSSIAN NORD STREAM 2 PIPELINE
The Texas senator did not confirm how long he intended to block State Department candidates, but a spokesperson for his office told Fox News: “Senator Cruz will use all of the influence and the prerogatives he has as a US Senator to get the Biden administration to follow suit. law and implement congressional mandates to sanction and stop the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“This includes the holding of State Department appointments that the Biden administration and Senate Democrats have advanced at the confirmation stage.”
The White House said Cruz’s decision endangered US security by “undermining the State Department.”
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“Many of these candidates have nothing to do with his stated concerns,” a White House spokesman said.
The White House told Fox News it is “engaging” with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to advance the presidential candidates.
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