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Floor Speech
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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, in a minute, I am going to ask unanimous consent for the approval of three important nominees who are not controversial. We have been hearing reasons to oppose a nominee who has some controversy, and I am going to raise three who are not controversial.
In July, I had the opportunity to travel to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, and Guatemala as part of a bipartisan congressional delegation. The first question we received in Mexico was not about COVID-19 and not about immigration. It was, When is your Ambassador going to get here?
Fortunately, since then, the Senate has approved the nomination of Ken Salazar to be Ambassador to Mexico, but the exchange underscores the importance of having U.S. Ambassadors on the ground and the value that other nations see in Senate-confirmed representatives of the United States.
I take the floor today to talk about three noncontroversial nominees: Adam Scheinman, of Virginia, to be Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation; Marc Ostfield to be Ambassador to Paraguay; and Cynthia Telles to be Ambassador to Costa Rica.
Mr. Scheinman has had a long history in the State Department and on the National Security Council at the White House on Nuclear Nonproliferation issues.
Marc Ostfield is a career Foreign Service Officer with deep experience in the Americas.
Cynthia Telles is the daughter of the first Hispanic to be a U.S. Ambassador. Her father was the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica 60 years ago, and after a very distinguished career, she has been nominated to inherit the post that he ably inhabited.
These were all nominees approved noncontroversially by the Foreign Relations Committee on October 19, nearly 2 months ago.
I will just mention to my colleagues one thing about Mr. Scheinman. It is particularly important that he be confirmed as soon as possible. An important duty of the Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation is to lead the U.S. delegation to the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty Review Conference. This conference happens once every 5 years--once every 5 years--and it is going to happen next month. If he is not confirmed before then, the United States will not have an Ambassador-level official to lead the American delegation at this existentially important meeting.
433, 436, and 439; that the nominations be confirmed; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order on these nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, may I invoke regular order? This is not a response to any of these three nominations.
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Mr. KAINE. Madam President, we have no interest in silencing Senator Cruz. In fact, the Democrats agreed to allow Senator Cruz to present his amendment on Nord Stream 2 last week, and it was blocked by Republican colleagues.
I have made a request for unanimous consent about two Ambassadors to the Americas and about someone who needs to attend a nuclear nonproliferation conference and lead the delegation from the United States. It happens once every 5 years, and it is coming up.
The Senator is allowed to speak about Nord Stream 2 for as long as he wants, but he shouldn't interrupt a UC for these three individuals to give a speech that he has given many times and that he is going to continue to give many times, and I am sure we are all going to hear it many times.
I would like a ruling on my request for unanimous consent on these three nominees.
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Mr. KAINE.
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