[ad_1]
Procedural movement: Cruz uses a committee rule that allows any member to defer consideration of an agenda item for a business meeting. This will push back the confirmation vote of the Thomas-Greenfield committee for a single day, as the foreign relations committee has scheduled back-to-back meetings Wednesday and Thursday.
“We have a backup business meeting in place for Thursday with that in mind,” said a spokesperson for the committee’s leading Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez (NJ). The Biden administration did not immediately comment.
The impeachment process looms: Cruz hopes that this delay will mean that the entire Senate will not be able to vote on the nomination of Thomas-Greenfield before the body embarks on its trial to impeach former President Donald Trump. Senate leaders have yet to agree on whether lawmakers can conduct other business during the trial, which is scheduled to begin on Monday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could push the nomination forward by keeping lawmakers in town over the weekend, but that could be unpopular among members before another grueling trial begins.
Symbolic declaration: The move is unlikely to defeat the nomination of Thomas-Greenfield, who is expected to win the support of Democrats and some moderate Republicans when she reaches the floor. But Cruz wants to draw attention to what he sees as President Joe Biden’s candidates taking a more conciliatory approach to Beijing than the Trump administration. He had previously taken a similar move to delay a Trump candidate for the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on internet governance issues.
Cruz China’s concerns continue: Cruz previously raised similar concerns about Secretary of Commerce candidate Gina Raimondo after refusing to commit to keeping Chinese tech companies like Huawei on his department’s blacklist. Raimondo has since retracted in written responses ahead of his committee’s vote on Wednesday.
And Cruz also asked Secretary of State Tony Blinken if he would lobby to keep Chinese surveillance companies on this blacklist for their role in human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, which the Department of State has called it genocide.
And after: The Foreign Relations Committee is unlikely to meet on Wednesday, with the nominating vote being its only item on the agenda, but will resume on Thursday with a vote.
[ad_2]
Source link