Tim Kaine: “I was scheduled to come to the floor today to offer live UCs to bring up two Biden nominees--very important nominees--to…”

“I was scheduled to come to the floor today to offer live UCs to bring up two Biden nominees--very important nominees--to assume diplomatic posts in the Western Hemisphere. Senator Scott of Florida was scheduled to be here to oppose my UCs and have a dialogue. The hurricane in Florida has pulled him away, and so he is unable to be here. I am left with the case where there is an objection, but the objector can't come for a reason that I understand. Senator Scott's team has indicated that he will likely be here tomorrow, and we might be able to repeat this tomorrow. What I thought I would do, having the floor, is say a little bit about these two countries and these two nominees because I hope Senator Scott might watch this or his staff might give him the transcript because I think, if he does, he will see that they are both highly qualified individuals. I want to talk about both, but I will not make the motion at the end of my comments with respect to unanimous consent. I would say that both Michelle Kwan, who was nominated by President Biden to be our Ambassador to Belize, and Mari Carmen Aponte, who was nominated to be our Ambassador to Panama, are both highly qualified individuals, as I will describe. But the countries are really important. Belize has not had an ambassador confirmed for more than 5 years. Panama has not had a confirmed ambassador for more than 4 years. And, sort of, the theme for both of these is, Why punish good behavior?…”