Senate panel backs Trump diplomatic nominees amid 'nuclear' push to speed confirmations
USA-CONGRESS/SENATE-DIPLOMACY:Senate panel backs Trump diplomatic nominees amid 'nuclear' push to speed confirmations
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 17 - A U.S. Senate committee approved dozens of Donald Trump's nominees for diplomatic positions on Wednesday, as the president's fellow Republicans worked to change Senate rules to make it easier to confirm his picks.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee considered 36 nominees, including such high-profile choices as former national security adviser Michael Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and White House Presidential Personnel Office Director Sergio Gor to be ambassador to India.
The committee votes were largely along party lines. Democrats mostly objected to Trump's picks and Republicans approved them nearly unanimously.
The panel's backing tees up consideration by the full Senate, where Trump's Republicans have a 53-47 majority and have confirmed every nominee who has come up for a vote. Following months of complaining that Democrats were slowing the installation of Trump's picks to many high-level government positions, Republicans resorted to the so-called nuclear option this month to change the Senate's rules to give the minority party less ability to slow down hundreds of such nominations.
Senate divisions along party lines have widened since Trump began his second term on January 20. Republicans have nearly unanimously supported Trump's nominees and initiatives, while Democrats have opposed them. Each party has accused the other of refusing to compromise. The foreign relations panel in May backed five nominees for diplomatic positions despite a Democratic boycott. It was a notable departure for the committee, which has long been known for bipartisanship.
For example, the committee steered the unanimous confirmation in January of then-Senator Marco Rubio to be Trump's secretary of state.
Despite the rules change, it was not immediately clear whether Waltz could be confirmed in time to be the official U.S. representative at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week. The Senate has a busy schedule, including negotiations to keep the government open after the end of the fiscal year on September 30, before leaving Washington for a recess next week.
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