World News | Senate foreign relations panel approves Garcetti as ambassador to India

washington [US]March 9 (ANI): The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has voted for former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be ambassador to India and will send his nomination to the full Senate for a vote, Fox News reported.

On Wednesday, the committee voted 13 to 8 to approve the nomination, with Republican Senators Todd Young and Bill Haggerty voting for Garcetti along with all Democrats on the committee.

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“We did see action in the Senate today. We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts. The United States needs a confirmed ambassador to India. Our team on the ground, including the charge d’affaires who have served as ambassadors, have done an extraordinary job,” the U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

Price added, “It is in the interest of our people on both sides to appoint a confirmed ambassador. We hope that the mayor and soon-to-be ambassador, Eric Garcetti, will fill that position soon.”

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He said that no other country in the world is willing to leave a vacancy for more than 2 years in a place as strategically important and valuable as India.

“Now, we certainly hope that the actions taken by the Senate today are a harbinger of many more. The United States needs a confirmed ambassador to India … No other country in the world wants to leave itself in a vacant position of strategic importance like India and value has been going on for over two years,” Price added.

US President Joe Biden first nominated Garcetti as ambassador to India in July 2021, and the Council on Foreign Relations initially approved him in January 2022.

But his nomination has been in limbo for a year amid allegations that Garcetti knew about sexual misconduct by one of his former top advisers but did nothing to stop it, The Hill reported.

Senator Chuck Grassley released a report on the situation in May, concluding that Garcetti may have known that his former chief of staff, Rick Jacobs (Rick Jacobs) allegations of sexual harassment of a Los Angeles police officer.

Grassley’s office said in a news release that the findings contradict Garcetti’s testimony at the committee’s nomination hearing.

Responding to the report at the time, Garcetti said he “strongly” disagreed with its findings and expressed optimism that it would be confirmed by the full Senate, The Hill reported.

A report commissioned by the city of Los Angeles previously found Garcetti did not engage in any wrongdoing related to the allegations against Jacobs.

According to Fox News, Garcetti never won the unanimous vote of the Senate until the end of the January session of Congress, and Biden immediately renominated him at the beginning of this session.

Last year, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmed Garcetti’s nomination as U.S. ambassador to India. However, nominations require confirmation by a majority of members of the U.S. Senate.

Jean-Pierre also called the nomination of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti a perfect fit for the job.

“So we see this as he is very qualified and deserving of this important role, and we hope that the full Senate will properly confirm him. Again, he was elected to committee and passed unanimously with strong bipartisan support, ’” the White House press secretary said in a statement. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)