Cotton blocks State nominations over Secret Service scandal

Cotton told The Washington Post that he is putting holds on Cassandra Butts’s nomination to be ambassador to the Bahamas, Azita Raji’s nomination to be ambassador to Sweden and Samuel Heins’s nomination to be ambassador to Norway.

 

{mosads}The Arkansas Republican — who wants the Department of Justice to conduct a criminal investigation into the leak — said he will block the nominations from coming up for a vote in the Senate until the administration takes “appropriate action.”

“When President Obama and [Homeland Security] Secretary [Jeh] Johnson take appropriate action, I will likewise take action and release these and future objections,” he told the Post, noting that he could block additional nominations if he isn’t satisfied with the administration’s response. 

He’s expected to speak further about the holds on the Senate floor later Monday afternoon.

Cotton’s move is a response to an inspector general report that found Edward Lowery, the assistant director of the Secret Service, suggested that the FBI release personal information about Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who has been critical of the agency. Chaffetz has since announced that he will try to replace outgoing Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is retiring at the end of the month.

Lowery has denied that he urged officials to leak unflattering information about Chaffetz. 

Cotton is hardly the first lawmaker to threaten to use State Department nominations as leverage in political and policy fights. 

Earlier this year, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) vowed to block all of the department’s nominees, as well as funding, unless Obama pledged to block the United Nations Security Council from approving the Iran nuclear deal until after Congress’s 60-day review period.