Ted Cruz Is Blocking Biden Nominees

WASHINGTON — The accomplishment of a caller U.S. ambassador to Mexico is usually a regular event. But for the Biden administration, it was a notable victory.

With the Senate’s Aug. 11 confirmation vote, erstwhile Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado became the archetypal Biden ambassador to get successful a overseas capital. And, arsenic of now, the last.

A bitter combat with Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, implicit a Russian state pipeline has created what Biden officials telephone a unit crisis, with Mr. Cruz delaying dozens of State Department nominees, including 59 would-be ambassadors, and vowing to artifact dozens more.

Democrats telephone Mr. Cruz’s actions an maltreatment of the information process and the latest illustration of Washington’s eroding governmental norms. They besides accidental helium is endangering nationalist information astatine a clip erstwhile only astir a quarter of cardinal nationalist information positions person been filled.

While Mr. Cruz cannot wholly artifact Mr. Biden’s State Department nominees, helium has greatly slowed the process by objecting to the Senate’s accepted signifier of confirming uncontroversial nominees by “unanimous consent.” His maneuver means that each nominee requires hours of Senate level clip portion different large priorities, including President Biden’s home spending agenda, vie for attention.

“It’s truly an undermining of the nation’s nationalist information process,” said Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and the president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “What we person present is an unprecedented, blanketed holding of each nominees — careless of whether they person thing to bash with the argumentation issues astatine stake.”

“That is not thing I person seen successful 30 years of doing overseas argumentation work” successful Congress, helium added. “This is unprecedented.”

Only a twelve of Mr. Biden’s State Department nominees person been cleared for a afloat Senate ballot by the committee — successful part, Democrats say, due to the fact that Republicans connected the committee are doing their ain foot-dragging. Dozens much are expected to beryllium acceptable for confirmation soon.

Even by the standards of a Senate wherever governmental grandstanding is the norm, Democrats accidental that Mr. Cruz is blatantly exposing his 2024 statesmanlike ambitions by picking a long-running conflict with Mr. Biden.

It is 1 that has attracted an imitator: Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, is vowing to artifact each nationalist information nominees implicit the Biden administration’s handling of Afghanistan, insisting helium volition not budge until Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Jake Sullivan, the nationalist information adviser, resign.

Mr. Cruz and his allies importune helium is taking a principled basal connected Nord Stream 2, a state pipeline task from Russia to Germany that has agelong been an contented of precocious involvement for him.

In mid-May, Mr. Biden waived congressionally imposed sanctions connected the project. Critics accidental the woody volition supply President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia leverage implicit European vigor information and woody a stroke to Washington’s state Ukraine, which operates a competing pipeline. But the task is simply a boon for Germany, and Mr. Biden — pleading that the task was astir implicit and virtually intolerable to halt — decided to prioritize relations with Germany, a cardinal European ally, alternatively than hazard a conflict with Chancellor Angela Merkel and her soon-to-be-successor.

When that happened, Mr. Cruz accused the Biden medication of showing “weakness” toward Russia. He has since exploited Senate rules to crook confirmation votes — adjacent mostly regular ones, for vocation overseas servants headed for comparatively midlevel jobs oregon low-profile ambassadorships — into hourslong exercises.

“President Biden has insisted connected giving a multibillion-dollar acquisition benefiting Russia, hurting America and hurting our nationalist information interests,” Mr. Cruz said connected the Senate level successful August.

“I’ve made wide to each State Department official, to each State Department nominee, that I volition spot holds connected these nominees unless and until the Biden medication follows the instrumentality and stops this pipeline and imposes the sanctions,” helium added.

Mr. Cruz is not the lone crushed astir each overseas ambassadorship and galore different State Department positions stay unfilled: The Biden White House was notoriously dilatory to statesman offering overseas argumentation nominations, exasperating adjacent its Democratic allies.

But unless Mr. Cruz backs down, it could beryllium months earlier Mr. Biden has his picks successful capitals similar Beijing, Jerusalem, Cairo and Berlin, and successful important policymaking positions astatine the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

A insignificant breakthrough came astatine the extremity of September, aft Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the bulk leader, saying helium would “take the agelong way,” cleared respective hours connected the Senate level to beforehand immoderate of the State Department nominees. Six were confirmed this past week, astir by wide margins, including adjunct secretaries of authorities for European, African, and East Asian and Pacific affairs. But galore dozens are inactive waiting.

State Department officials accidental the shortage of confirmed elder unit is straining their quality to behaviour diplomacy. They constituent to the illustration of Bonnie Jenkins, who was officially nominated successful March to beryllium the State Department’s apical arms power serviceman but not confirmed until July 21 — conscionable a fewer days earlier she departed for strategical arms talks with the Russians successful Geneva.

Mr. Cruz and different Republicans accidental a 2017 instrumentality — the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, devised to unit a reluctant President Donald J. Trump to enforce sanctions connected Moscow — requires Mr. Biden to penalize Nord Stream 2 AG, the institution successful complaint of the pipeline project, which is simply a subsidiary of the bulk state-owned Russian vigor institution Gazprom. They accidental an medication study uncovering that the institution facilitated “deceptive” transactions should trigger the 2017 measure.

Mr. Cruz’s allies accidental helium felt misled by aboriginal statements from Mr. Blinken suggesting helium would enactment to halt the Nord Stream project, which helped transportation Mr. Cruz to assistance earlier holds connected nominees, including Mr. Biden’s prime for manager of the C.I.A., William J. Burns.

“This is not thing helium does lightly oregon with relish. This is conscionable thing helium is deeply, profoundly acrophobic about,” said Victoria Coates, a erstwhile nationalist information adjutant to Mr. Cruz who besides worked successful the Trump White House. “He feels similar they lied to him, and they are not knowing however superior this is.”

“We tin springiness him the payment of the uncertainty that his extremity is to micromanage U.S. overseas policy,” said Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut and a subordinate of the Foreign Relations Committee.

“This is not astir his objection to Nord Stream 2. This is to get a batch of eyeballs from a combat with President Biden,” Mr. Murphy said. Some Democrats besides enactment that Mr. Cruz has a parochial involvement successful quashing a overseas vigor task that competes with his location state’s lipid and state industry.

Mr. Cruz has not spoken to Mr. Blinken astir the matter, though his bureau has negotiated circumstantial agreements with the State Department. In mid-September, Mr. Cruz allowed unanimous consent votes to corroborate 3 nominees, including adjunct secretaries of authorities overseeing the Western Hemisphere, South and Central Asia, and intelligence.

Mr. Cruz has offered the Biden medication a deal: Impose sanctions connected Nord Stream 2 AG, and past waive them if you wish. Those steps would automatically trigger a ballot successful Congress connected whether to artifact Mr. Biden’s override — 1 that the president is apt to win, but that would make an unwelcome diversion for the White House, not to notation a level for Mr. Cruz.

In a statement, Mr. Cruz’s property secretary, Dave Vasquez, said the legislator “has worked time successful and time retired to trade and beforehand compromises” connected the matter, adding that the medication “could get its nominees done time by simply implementing the law.”

But adjacent nether that scenario, Mr. Cruz has promised lone to driblet his absorption to vocation overseas work nominees, suggesting that helium volition proceed to contradict casual confirmation to governmental appointees. That class includes erstwhile Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago to beryllium ambassador to Japan, erstwhile Senator Jeff Flake, a Republican, to be ambassador to Turkey, and the banker and erstwhile Obama State Department authoritative Thomas R. Nides to beryllium ambassador to Israel.

Mr. Murphy, who supports changing the Senate’s rules to bounds the clip that tin beryllium devoted to midlevel nominations, called the likelihood of a Biden reversal connected the Nord Stream project, which has been completed but is not yet operational, “negative 75 percent.”

And adjacent if Mr. Cruz were someway satisfied, determination remains Mr. Hawley.

Mr. Menendez suggested that Mr. Schumer could telephone a play Senate session, which would unit senators to walk their days disconnected plowing done nominations.

“Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are not paying immoderate consequences,” Mr. Menendez said. “But erstwhile members person to beryllium present connected a weekend, voting lone connected these things that are passing overwhelmingly successful a bipartisan vote, I deliberation adjacent unit mightiness beryllium brought to bear.”