Two professional nuclear societies are asking Congress to confirm as U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) a senior National Security Council official whose nomination has been blocked due to Senate disagreements over the Iran nuclear deal. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) and the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM) said Tuesday they had sent a letter to Senate leaders Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urging the upper chamber to confirm Laura Holgate as ambassador to the Vienna Office of the United Nations and to the IAEA.
Holgate has served since 2009 as special assistant to the president and senior director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism and threat reduction on the National Security Council. She was previously vice president for Russia and the newly independent states for the nongovernmental Nuclear Threat Initiative, as well as director of the Office of Fissile Materials Disposition at the Department of Energy.
“We are deeply concerned that the continuing absence of a US ambassador to the IAEA is eroding our nation’s ability to influence international nuclear nonproliferation efforts at a critical time,” said the April 13 letter signed by ANS President Eugene Grecheck and INMM President Lawrence Satkowiak. The letter cited the Iran deal and the North Korean nuclear program as issues requiring “constant vigilance” and said Holgate is “exceptionally qualified” to address these matters.
President Barack Obama sent Holgate’s nomination to the Senate last August, but the nomination was blocked due to political disagreements related to the Iran deal. In a July 2015 letter to Obama, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the language in the agreement “assumes Congressional consent” and allowed the president to push the deal forward in the U.N. without congressional review. Cruz initially said he would block all Department of State nominees unless given written assurances that any Security Council resolution approving the deal would be blocked. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution endorsing the deal in late July, but Holgate’s nomination remains blocked due to political opposition in Washington.
National Security Advisor Susan Rice said last August that Holgate has played a key role in strengthening the global nuclear security architecture. “Laura has spent her career building and leading global coalitions to prevent states and terrorists from acquiring and using weapons of mass destruction,” she said.
