Senate Confirms 18 Nominations for Envoy Posts
The Senate confirmed 18 ambassadorial nominations Thursday that had been stalled for months in a bitter fight over an effort by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to revamp, consolidate and shrink the government’s foreign-policy apparatus.
The 18 “hostage” ambassadors, along with another cleared by the committee last week, received final approval when the Senate approved a scaled-back version of Helms’ reorganization bill under an accord negotiated by Helms and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).
The vote was 82 to 16, with only Democrats in dissent. Several of them bitterly protested spending cuts that would be required by the bill, claiming they would cripple the country’s diplomatic capacities. The Senate bill goes to a conference with the House.
The ambassadorial confirmations included President Clinton’s choices for several strategically important countries stretching from South Africa to China, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Freed along with the ambassadors were two treaties, including the START 2 arms-reduction treaty with countries in the former Soviet Union, and the International Chemical Weapons Convention.
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