A business meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled for Wednesday, where U.S. President Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Deborah Lipstadt was supposed to be voted on, was postponed until March 29 due to a lack of attendance.
The meeting was scheduled at the same time as the third day of confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Three senators—two Democrats and one Republican—serve on both committees.
According to a Democratic Senate aide, as a result, committee chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) had to postpone the votes on Lipstadt and Biden’s pick to serve as part of the White House National Security Council’s Middle East and North Africa portfolio, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Barbara Leaf, due to there not being enough in-person attendees to report out the nominations, especially if Republicans unify in opposition.
Menendez also honored holdover requests from Republicans on five other items on the meeting’s agenda.
