Amy Klobuchar: “I came to the Senate floor earlier this month to talk about the importance of moving forward on the nominations of the…”

“I came to the Senate floor earlier this month to talk about the importance of moving forward on the nominations of the Ambassadors to two important allies to the United States of America, and that is Norway and Sweden. These are countries that have been our true friends through many wars. They have been our true friends economically--some of the top investors in America--and they have been countries that are good examples of democracy and good examples of countries that believe in human rights. Yet we have not been able to confirm an ambassador to either country. I do want to, first of all, say that in the case of Sweden, it has been 462 days since the President nominated Azita Raji to be Ambassador, and in the case of Norway, it has been 853 days since that country has had a U.S. Ambassador. I will get to those details. In this case, the nominee is Sam Heins from the State of Minnesota, where, by the way, we have over 1 million people of Scandinavian descent--1.5 million people who do not understand why every major nation in Europe has an ambassador but not these two Scandinavian countries. I thank Senator McConnell, the majority leader, and Senator Reid for their work in trying to advance these nominees to the floor. They have negotiated. Senator Corker and Senator Cardin are both supportive of these nominees. I think it is important to note that this is not a typical story of delay. These nominees went through the committee without any objection.…”