Procedural movement: Cruz is using a committee rule that allows any member to delay considering an agenda item for a business meeting. This will delay the confirmation vote by the Thomas-Greenfield committee by just one day, as the Foreign Affairs Committee has scheduled consecutive meetings for Wednesday and Thursday.
“We have a reserve business meeting on Thursday with that in mind,” said a spokesman for the top Democrat on the committee, Senator Bob Menendez (NJ). The Biden government did not immediately comment.
The impeachment trial is approaching: Cruz hopes that the delay means that the entire Senate will not be able to vote on the Thomas-Greenfield nomination before the body plunges into its impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump. Senate leaders have yet to reach an agreement on whether lawmakers will be able to conduct other business during the trial, scheduled to start on Monday.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer could force the nomination by keeping lawmakers in town over the weekend, but that could be unpopular with members before another strenuous trial begins.
Symbolic statement: The move should not undermine Thomas-Greenfield’s nomination, which should win the support of Democrats and some moderate Republicans when it reaches the floor. But Cruz wants to draw attention to what he considers to be President Joe Biden’s nominees taking a more conciliatory approach to Beijing than the Trump administration. Previously, he made a similar move to delay a Trump nominee to head the National Telecommunications and Information Administration for Internet governance issues.
Cruz China concerns continue: Cruz had previously raised similar concerns about the nominee for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo after she refused to commit to keeping Chinese technology companies like Huawei blacklisted in her department. Raimondo has since retracted written responses before his vote on the committee on Wednesday.
And Cruz also lobbied Secretary of State Tony Blinken about whether he would push to keep Chinese surveillance companies blacklisted for their role in human rights violations in the Xinjiang region, which the State Department called genocide.
What is the next: The Foreign Affairs Committee is unlikely to meet on Wednesday, as the nomination vote was its only agenda item, but will resume on Thursday with a vote.