Blinken to press Senate to move forward on dozens of blocked State Department nominees

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday will urge the Senate to quickly advance the dozens of State Department nominees that remain pending due to holds put into place by Republican senators, a State Department official told CNN.

Blinken's push for the nominees to move forward comes as Republicans in the Senate have been obstructing key national security posts across multiple agencies, and amid a partisan fight over the annual military spending budget.

According to the State Department official, the agency currently has 61 nominees outstanding with the Senate, including 38 ambassadorial nominees awaiting confirmation for posts around the world.

The top US diplomat will send a letter to the Senate "asking for them to move forward with State Department nominees with alacrity," and Blinken will address the press on Monday to underscore how the holds "are hurting national security," the official said.

The State Department official said that all but three of the 38 ambassadorial nominees awaiting a floor vote are career foreign service officers, and "some have been waiting over 18 months for confirmation."

"This summer, for the first time ever, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Lebanon will have no confirmed U.S. ambassadors, and we remain without ambassadors for the African Union, UAE, Rwanda, Somalia, and Haiti," the official said.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has put a hold on all State Department nominees, demanding that the agency turn over further information related the origins of Covid-19. Paul put his hold into place in early June, demanding the US government's Covid-19 research records and citing concerns that those projects could be linked to the origin of the pandemic.