The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced Rep. Elise Stefanik, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, by voice vote Thursday.
Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland were among several Democrats who requested to be recorded as voting “no,” in part as a protest against the administration’s pause on foreign aid.
Republicans voted to advance her without comment about their support.
Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho addressed the pause on foreign aid that Trump ordered on Inauguration Day. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him the pause was meant to highlight the federal deficit.
“Admittedly, there have been some inconveniences along the line, but they’re continuing to work on this,” Risch said. He and ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., agreed that foreign aid is not a partisan issue.
Trump’s order doesn’t mention the debt or deficit, but justifies the 90-day pause in spending by saying foreign aid isn’t meeting U.S. interests.
“The United States foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values,” the order says. “They serve to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Stefanik’s confirmation hearing on Jan. 21 was less contentious than those of some other nominees. Conflict at the hearing centered more on disagreements about the U.S. role in the U.N.
Stefanik, R-N.Y., told senators that she supported “tailored cuts” in U.S. funding for the U.N. But Van Hollen said Thursday that Stefanik took House votes, including last year for an appropriations bill, that would have eliminated funding for the U.N.’s regular budget and several offices.
Van Hollen called Stefanik’s more measured approach “a nomination eve conversion,” and said she was “the wrong person for this job at the United Nations.”
Shaheen voted for Stefanik, and called out her support for the U.N. Population Fund and its work for women and children around the world.
“I don’t agree with all of Representative Stefanik’s positions, but I was pleased to hear her talk about her interest in supporting the work of the U.N. and trying to ensure that it operates better,” Shaheen said. “So I intend to support her.”
Coons said he was inclined to support Stefanik’s nomination, but voted against her to protest the foreign aid pause.
“I’m not going to vote for nominees until this is reversed,” he said.
Merkley highlighted Stefanik’s endorsement at her hearing of Israeli officials’ views that Israel has a “biblical right” to the entire West Bank.
“This viewpoint perpetuates a cycle of war and hate and is exactly the wrong approach for us to have an enduring peace and stability,” Merkley said.
Stefanik was chairwoman of the House Republican Conference in the last Congress. She was elected in 2014 with a reputation as a moderate but became a vocal supporter of Trump and his right-wing populism.
She made headlines in 2023 for her exchanges with prominent university presidents in a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing over accusations of antisemitism on college campuses.
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