The installation of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has been postponed because of a squabble between the Clinton administration and the chairman of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee
The installation of a new U.S. ambassador to Ukraine has been postponed because of a squabble
between theClinton administration and the chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee.
After the U.S. administration announced plans to let Russia postpone payment on $485 million owed to the U.S. government, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms made good on his threats to put all ambassadorial nominations on hold.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher criticized the decision to hold up ambassadorial nominations, of which at least 13 are pending.
“We send up qualified applicants” for confirmation, Boucher said. “We need to have these people in posts and we don’t think their fate should be linked to unrelated issues.”
The full Senate Committee on Foreign Relations voted on June 28 to approve the appointment of former National Security Council advisor Carlos Pascual as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.
The final step in the confirmation process requires the committee to formally submit his candidacy to a full vote, which won’t be possible until after Sept. 6 when senators return from their summer vacations.
The Senate may act on many nominations when it returns in September, but senior Clinton administration officials have been meeting to assess whether to make recess appointments rather than wait.
According to the Washington Post, three ambassadorial nominees – Robin Chandler Duke for Norway, Boston hotelier James Daley for Barbados and businessman Carl Spielvogel for Slovakia – are potential recess appointees.
Steven Pifer last month told Ukraine’s most tabloid Fakty that he planned to quit Ukraine by the end of July this year. Embassy spokesmen in Kyiv were unable – or unwilling – to say whether he has changed those plans, or if they have been changed for him.
