GOTTEMOELLER NOMINATION VOTE LOOMING, BUT OPPOSITION STILL REMAINS

By ExchangeMonitor

After delays because of snowy weather in Washington, D.C., the Senate could take up the nomination of Rose Gottemoeller, the Obama Administration’s nominee for Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, in the coming days. Gottemoeller’s nomination has languished in the Senate for more than a year, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) last week filed cloture for Gottemoeller’s nomination this week, setting up a potential vote this week. The move angered several Republican Senators that have tried to block Gottemoeller’s nomination over concerns about Russian noncompliance with arms control treaties. "We are extremely disappointed in Senator Reid’s decision to once again subvert the rules of the Senate and schedule a vote on this controversial nominee," Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Jim Risch (Idaho) and John Cornyn (Texas) said in a statement. "We have repeatedly made clear to the Obama administration our concerns about Ms. Gottemoeller’s role in failing to quickly pursue evidence of Russia’s [non]compliance with multiple arms control agreements and her delay in making the Senate aware of these violations."

Meanwhile, 10 Department of Energy nominees remain unconfirmed, including President Obama’s pick to be National Nuclear Security Administration Administrator, Frank Klotz, and Elizabeth Robinson, the Administration’s pick to be Under Secretary of Energy for Performance and Management. “It’s obviously very, very frustrating,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said yesterday. “We all know the confirmation process has kind of slowed to a crawl at the moment. All I can do is hope that we’ll have our full complement, our full team together, soon.”

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