Departing chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee Ben Cardin has sent a letter to his Republican successor emphasising the need for the new Republican majority to “resist pressure” and fully vet president-elect Donald Trump's foreign policy nominations.
In the letter, first obtained by The National, Mr Cardin told Senator Jim Risch that allowing the full vetting process of the president's nominees “was in the best interest of the committee, the Senate and the American people, even when it required resisting pressure to take a different, unilateral approach".
The Senate committee has oversight authority on the US State Department, and plays a key role in approving Washington's diplomatic corps, including ambassadors.
Mr Trump has included some controversial foreign policy appointments as his team transitions back into the White House, including Mike Huckabee as Washington's ambassador to Israel.
He has also nominated billionaire businessman and longtime friend Tom Barrack, a Lebanese-American, to be Washington's ambassador to Turkey.
Mr Cardin told reporters on Thursday at his last briefing that “when the Democrats have had the gavel, we have allowed for the full vetting process and the rights of every member of the committee and the ranking member to be able to work with us".
“We are expecting that type of courtesy to be extended in the next Congress, as the Republicans have the gavel.”
The committee will switch from Democratic to Republican control when the new government comes to power in January. Foreign policy committees are typically among Washington's most co-operative and bipartisan, but that legacy has faced recent hurdles amid the chaos in the Middle East from Israel's Gaza war.
Mr Risch has held up committee activities over disputes he says have to do with Mr Cardin not bringing a House-passed bill that would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court over its warrants against Israeli officials.
In October, a US ambassador nominee withdrew after waiting nearly two and half years for any movement on her nomination. Mr Cardin addressed this backlog, saying that although Democrats are “not giving up hope yet", he has “not got the consent from Republican leadership” to move forward with about 29 nominations for vacant diplomatic posts.
