For much of 2021, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas blocked votes on many diplomatic nominees, denying the Biden administration of ambassadors in key countries around the globe. As 2022 got underway, Sen. Josh Hawley played similar games: As Russia amassed troops along the Ukrainian border, the Missouri Republican delayed votes on nominees related to national security, including a Russia expert whom the president nominated to serve as the Pentagon’s top international security official.

This week, as Foreign Policy magazine reported, the problem persisted in deeply frustrating ways.

In recent weeks, the Biden administration and key Republican lawmakers have forged a rare consensus on the need for a tougher response to Russia’s war in Ukraine…. Yet, at the same time, Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Roger Marshall of Kansas, have placed holds on the confirmation of several key Biden administration appointees with critical roles in addressing Ukraine’s crisis.

The article added that there are occasional displays of unity, but the GOP senators’ nominee blockade “shows Washington’s partisan divide is still managing to stymie the White House’s efforts to mobilize the world behind a coherent diplomatic, military, and legal strategy.”

A senior State Department official told Foreign Policy, “The number of highly relevant senior officials who are stuck on the Senate floor right now, whose expertise is needed in the current crisis, is pretty frustrating.”

The aggravation is understandable. Partisan disputes are inevitable, but there’s a crisis underway and it’s not unreasonable to think elected officials would at least try to be responsible.

And yet, these were the nominees blocked this week:

• James O’Brien, who would serve as the State Department’s sanctions coordinator;
• C.S. Eliot Kang, who would serve as assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation;
• Julieta Valls Noyes, who would serve as assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration;
• Erin McKee, who would serve as assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Florida’s Scott blocked the first three, while Kansas’ Marshall blocked the fourth.

Scott defended his obstructionism by demanding action on an unrelated issue related to Cuba, while Marshall didn’t bother to explain his obstructionism.

Foreign Policy’s article added, “Other key nominees who remain blocked include Laura Holgate, who was nominated as ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Mallory Stewart, who was first nominated for assistant secretary for arms control in early July 2021; and Sarah Margon, a former human rights advocate nominated as assistant secretary for democracy, human rights, and labor.”

Sen. Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was unsparing in his criticisms of the GOP’s antics after seeking unanimous consent on these uncontroversial nominees.

“I don’t understand how the party of Reagan, the party of ‘freedom and democracy,’ the party of standing up to these people can create a set of circumstances where they are now helping Putin at the end of the day,” Menendez said. “This really undermines our national security. It really undermines our help for the Ukrainian people… I hope some saner minds will prevail in the days ahead when I come back to the floor to try this again.”

To be sure, Scott and Marshall are in the minority, and there are procedural limits on what Republicans can do to block executive-branch nominees. But as we’ve discussed, by utilizing obstructionist tactics, exploiting the Senate’s dysfunctional rules, and remaining indifferent to the consequences, Republican lawmakers can force Democratic leaders to jump through a series of time-consuming hoops in order to confirm nominees who aren’t controversial, and who already have enough votes to be approved. At the same time, the more the governing majority is forced to clear these procedural hurdles, the less it’s able to do other legislative work.