Senate

Cruz blocks nominees to the State Department for a third time

by Jordain Carney - 02/08/16 6:35 PM ET

Sen. Ted Cruz blocked the Senate from confirming State Department nominees for the third time in the past week, even though the Texas Republican is campaigning in New Hampshire.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) tried on Monday evening to get unanimous consent to confirm Samuel Heins to be ambassador to Norway and Azita Raji to be ambassador to Sweden.

{mosads}Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), however, objected, and said he was doing so on behalf of Cruz, who has spent much of the last week campaigning in New Hampshire, where he is trailing businessman Donald Trump ahead of Tuesday’s primary.

Klobuchar slammed Cruz after McConnell’s move, saying the Texas Republican was the only remaining hurdle to getting the ambassador nominations confirmed.

“We ask him to remove these holds. He has not voiced any concerns about these individual nominees. He voiced concerns about unrelated policy issues,” she said, noting that Cruz hasn’t been in the Senate to object to the nominees himself.

The presidential candidate has pledged to block State Department nominees over the Iran nuclear deal.

Klobuchar, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) have each tried to pass State Department nominations over the past week but were blocked by a senator objecting on behalf of Cruz.

Klobuchar added on Monday that she and Shaheen are planning to “come to the floor every single day and make the case for these countries.”

Tags Amy Klobuchar Ben Cardin Donald Trump Jeanne Shaheen Mitch McConnell Ted Cruz