The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted unanimously in favor of Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) to be the next secretary of state, with a full Senate vote expected in the evening.
The committee at 4:30 p.m. advanced Rubio’s nomination in a 22–0 vote.
Rubio, 53, likely faces the easiest confirmation process out of Trump’s Cabinet choices. Many senators have worked with Rubio on policy issues, a relationship that he could leverage to build bipartisan support.
The three-term Florida senator faced a warm audience during the Jan. 15 hearing. A number of Senate Democrats voiced strong support for his confirmation to represent the United States overseas. The top two senators on the panel, Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and ranking member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), agreed in an opening statement about Rubio’s skills to take on the job.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) thanked Rubio in the hearing for helping amend Senate floor rules so that she could bring her newborn daughter to the floor to vote, adding it was “a moment of true bipartisanship.”
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Rubio told the committee that he intends to make the State Department “relevant again.” The department over successive administrations has become marginalized because “it takes so long for the State Department to take action,” he said.
The core mission he envisions for the agency is about “placing the interest of America and Americans above all else,” to “promote peace abroad and security and prosperity here at home.”
Top on his focus is confronting the Chinese Communist Party, which he defined as “the most potent and dangerous, near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.”
China dominates critical mineral supplies essential in industries such as electronics, energy, and defense. In Washington, there is bipartisan concern over the regime’s military aggression toward its neighbors, covert influence operations, and human rights suppression that has sometimes reached into the United States.
“If we stay on the road we’re on now, in less than 10 years, virtually everything that matters to us in life will depend on whether China will allow us to have it or not,” Rubio said.
If confirmed, Rubio is set to meet on Tuesday with his counterparts from the Quad grouping, the foreign ministers of India, Japan, and Australia, officials have said.
The nominations of several other prospective Cabinet members are also moving forward on Monday. At 5:30 p.m., the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees are respectively holding votes to consider South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary and Russell Voight as the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
Trump has appointed Lisa Kenna, who has served as the executive secretary of the Department of State and the U.S. ambassador to Peru, to perform the duties of the secretary of state position until Rubio’s confirmation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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