Cruz Holds Up Raimondo’s Confirmation — Vote Delayed Until End of Month at Earliest
GoLocalProv News Team
Cruz Holds Up Raimondo’s Confirmation — Vote Delayed Until End of Month at Earliest
Cruz confirmed the reason for delaying Raimondo was over Huawei, which is currently on the U.S. Entity List — and the Biden Administration has refused to say if they will keep on.
“I’ll lift the hold when the Biden admin commits to keep the massive Chinese Communist Party spy operation Huawei on the Entity List,” Cruz Tweeted late Thursday.
As GoLocal wrote immediately following Raimondo’s confirmation hearing on January 26, "Raimondo Blasts China for 'Anti-Competitive' Behavior, Won’t Commit to Keeping Huawei Sanctions.”
Raimondo blasted China for its “anti-competitive behavior” before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on Tuesday during her confirmation hearings for United States Commerce Secretary.
Raimondo, however, would not speak to Chinese tech giant Huawei’s current placement on the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) “Entity List” — and whether they would remain on the list.
While Raimondo’s nomination was approved this week by the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation her vote before the full Senate will be delayed now for several reasons.
A Senate ‘hold’ is an informal practice whereby senators communicate to Senate leaders, often in the form of a letter, their policy views and scheduling preferences regarding measures and matters available for floor consideration.
The decision to honor a hold request, and for how long, rests with the majority leader — New York Democrat Chuck Schumer.
Complicating matters however is the fact that the United States Senate will be in recess from February 15 through February 19.
De facto, the body will be out from February 12 through February 22.
The earlier a full Senate vote on Raimondo now looks to be the last week of February.
What this means for Rhode Island is a protracted transition to a new Governor — Lt. Governor Dan McKee — as Rhode Island continues to struggle with its vaccination rollout, McKee has not yet announced a Lt. Governor, and Raimondo continues to refuse to speak with the press.
Raimondo has refused to answer press question or conduct any public events accept her highly produced State of the State — her unwillingness to resign and allow McKee to take over has created paralysis in the State’s response to addressing the pandemic and rollout a functional vaccination program.
Moreover, Rhode Island faces an estimated $500 million budget deficit and there have been no significant negotiations between the Governor’s office and General Assembly leaders.
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