Senate Republicans Allegedly Block Key Intelligence Nominations

Mark Hosenball
Obama administration officials and Senate Democrats are complaining that Senate Republicans are secretly blocking approval of two nominees to key U.S. intelligence posts. Following public hearings, the Senate Intelligence Committee last month approved the nominations of Caryn Wagner to become intelligence chief at the Department of Homeland Security and Philip Goldberg to head the State Department's Intelligence and Research bureau. The Intelligence Committee's vote on both nominees was unanimous, meaning that every Democrat and every Republican member of the committees supported their confirmation by the full Senate. The nominations were then sent to the Senate floor, where leadership officials sought to arrange expedited approval for them through a procedure that requires unanimous consent by senators. All Senate Democrats gave their approval to the nominees. But according to a senior Senate official, at least one unknown Republican senator, taking advantage of one of the Senate's more esoteric conventions, lodged an objection to unanimous consent─effectively placing an indefinite anonymous "hold" on the two appointments. LinkHere