UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Mike Waltz almost certainly will not make his debut as President Donald Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during a gathering of world leaders next week after delays and procedural hurdles postponed his confirmation.
Waltz's nomination was sent back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week after Democrats blocked more than two dozen of Trump's executive branch nominees. His bid will face another committee vote Wednesday before heading to the Senate floor,
but it is all but impossible that he would be confirmed by the full chamber before the high-level General Assembly meeting starts on Monday.
“Senate Democrats’ extension of their blockade on President Trump’s nominations is a deterrent to bipartisan committee work and has hurt America’s standing on the world stage," Sen. Jim Risch, GOP chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement. "Republicans are getting the Senate back to work, and I’m confident Mr. Waltz will be in place in the coming weeks.”
Waltz served for mere weeks as Trump's national security adviser before he was ousted in May after mistakenly adding a journalist to a private Signal chat used to discuss sensitive military plans. He has denied being removed from the post, instead claiming he was tapped for the U.N. role and stating that the chat met the administration’s cybersecurity standards. The Pentagon inspector general is investigating.
By the time the White House sent the Florida Republican’s paperwork to the Senate for the confirmation process to begin, the U.N. position had been vacant for nearly six months. It is the last one to be filled in Trump’s Cabinet following months of delay, including the withdrawal of the previous nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik, over concerns about the Republicans' House majority.
It is unclear why Waltz wasn't advanced before Democrats employed the procedural move, given that his nomination moved out of committee last month with bipartisan support.
A Democratic congressional aide said the White House had shown “no urgency” in getting Waltz confirmed before next week's major U.N. gathering. He would have been representing the United States alongside Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who now also serves as national security adviser.
A White House official said Trump “has been clear” that he wants all of his nominees confirmed as quickly as possible. The official — who, like the aide, spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — did not comment on Waltz’s nomination specifically.
Republicans on Wednesday are likely to vote to confirm Waltz and more than 25 other Trump nominees who had been sent back to committee en bloc, deploying a new tactic to make it easier to confirm large groups of people picked to fill administration positions after last-minute negotiations with Democrats fell apart.
The move by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is the latest salvo after a dozen years of gradual changes by both parties to weaken the filibuster and make the nominations process more partisan.
When Waltz is eventually confirmed, he will arrive at the U.N. headquarters in New York at a time of great change for the international organization, which just celebrated its 80th anniversary. The world body is reeling from Trump’s decision this year to slash foreign assistance funding, which has hugely affected its humanitarian aid agencies and foreshadowed additional U.S. funding cuts to the U.N. annual budget.
At his confirmation hearing in July, Waltz said U.N. revenue “has quadrupled in the last 20 years," but it hasn’t been commensurate with increased peace.
“The U.S. must ensure that every foreign aid dollar and every contribution to an international organization, particularly the U.N., draws a straight and direct line to a compelling U.S. national interest,” he testified to senators.
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
