On September 15, 2021, the Senate Foreign Relations committee held a hearing to consider five Biden administration nominees for important positions in the State Department. Although Senator Bob Menendez on New Jersey is the chairman of the committee, he asked Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware to preside over the hearing that day. You can read a transcript of the hearing here.

As you might imagine, it’s difficult to get into too much depth with any particular nominee when there are five nominees to consider, and that was certainly the case in this hearing. Dr. C.S. Eliot Kang, a longtime employee of the State Department who was nominated to be Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation, received minimal questioning. The questions mainly concerned Iran and North Korea. His credentials and qualifications did not come under scrutiny.

And that’s not surprising if you look at his work history.

He’s been serving in the position in an acting role since Inauguration Day. He also had spells as the acting secretary during the Obama and Trump administrations. He began his career at the department in 2003, when he was hired by the Bush administration. He spent the bulk of the Obama administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Affairs.

Rather than spending a lot of time questioning Dr. Kang directly, the Republicans preferred to have him provide written responses to their inquiries, and his responses are listed at the end of the hearing transcript. The topics are substantive in nature. It doesn’t appear that any senators had reservations about Kang.

The committee reported his nomination favorably to the full Senate in March 8, 2022. Nonetheless, the Democrats had to file cloture to overcome an objection to Kang.  In an unusual move, on March 24, there was an unanimous consent agreement waiving the mandatory quorum required under Rule XXII (governing the filibuster). ” In the end, even though 47 Republican senators voted to sustain the filibuster on Tuesday, cloture was successfully achieved at 52 votes.

This was quickly followed by the actual confirmation vote. The tally on that was 52-46. So why did 46 Republicans vote against Kang’s confirmation?

The general explanation for this is just that Republicans do not want to vote in favor of Biden nominees. They don’t even want to assent to votes on Biden nominees. This includes positions they know must be filled and candidates they agree are well qualified. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell allowed his caucus to object and filibuster even as he eased the path to Kang’s confirmation by waiving the quorum requirement. By voting against Kang twice (once on cloture and once on confirmation), Senate Republicans padded their record for opposing the Biden administration without having any influence beside needless delay.

Obviously, our national security isn’t much of a consideration for the Republicans here.  They don’t care if we have a confirmed secretary dealing with nonproliferation issues at a time when there is a lot of concern about Iran and North Korea, as well as the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons by Russia in Ukraine. They certainly don’t care about Dr. Kang’s feelings after being rejected by nearly half the Senate.

Dr. Kang is not unique. There were actually three additional nominees who were obstructed by Republicans, including James O’Brien for State Department sanctions coordinator, Julieta Valls Noyes for assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, and Erin McKee, for assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia at USAID. All these positions are highly relevant to the crisis in Ukraine.

Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida objected to Kang, O’Brien and Valls Noyes, citing an unrelated issue with Cuba, while Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas didn’t even deign to offer an explanation for his opposition to McKee.

I mention all this not because I think the American people will care, but just because I like to document the atrocities.