US Senate committee approves Trump’s UN envoy pick, nomination heads to full vote

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday voted narrowly in favor of Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump’s pick to be U.N. envoy, clearing the way for a confirmation vote in the full 100-member Senate.

The panel voted 12-10 in favor of Waltz, who was removed as Trump’s national security adviser in May after he was caught up in a scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump aides and a journalist.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee’s ranking Democrat, joined Republicans in backing Waltz, after receiving commitments that the State Department would release disaster aid for Haiti and Nigeria, and Republican Senator Rand Paul joined Democrats in voting against him.

There was no immediate indication of when the full Senate might consider the nomination. A spokesperson for the chamber’s Republican leader, Senator John Thune, said there were no scheduling updates.

Thune has indicated he might delay the Senate’s annual August recess if Democrats do not allow Republicans to confirm Trump nominees more quickly. In a recent post on his Truth Social platform, Trump urged the Senate to stay in Washington for votes on his nominees.

Waltz – a retired Army Green Beret and former Republican lawmaker from Florida – is one of the last major Trump nominees awaiting likely Senate confirmation.

He was ousted as national security adviser on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving the Signal chat that discussed details of a U.S. military operation and mistakenly included a journalist. Trump then promptly nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.

In a statement on her vote, Shaheen said she disagreed with Waltz on some issues, including his “use of unclassified systems to coordinate sensitive discussions.” However she also called him a moderating force with a background in national security policy-making who does not seem to be isolationist.

“Mike Waltz did not represent himself to me as someone who wants to retreat from the world – and this is a quality I value in nominees,” Shaheen said.

A spokesperson for Shaheen said she had also secured the State Department’s agreement to release by the end of July $50 million for disaster relief in Haiti and $25 million for disaster relief in Nigeria.

At his confirmation hearing this month, Waltz said the United Nations needs reform and the United States must have a strong voice to counter China, adding that he is “confident we can make the U.N. great again.”

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)