(Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Congress to help fix a “broken” system that forces damaging budget cuts and leaves key roles vacant for long stretches.
America’s position in the world is harmed by budget uncertainty and the resulting cuts and hiring freezes, as well as reduced investments in global initiatives, Blinken told the Foreign Service Institute on Wednesday. The dysfunction sows doubt among US allies and partners and emboldens Washington’s adversaries, he warned.
“We can’t fail to pay our dues at the UN and cede the space to our competitors,” he said. “And we can’t hold up the confirmation of highly skilled, capable, and patriotic Americans — sometimes for years at a time — when they should be leading our missions overseas.”
Blinken said Biden administration nominees, including ambassadors, spend an average of 240 days awaiting Senate confirmation — up from 50 days for presidential nominees in 2001. Congressional Republicans have also held up payments to the UN and other global organizations in a push for budget cuts.
“The system is broken,” he said. “It’s damaging our diplomacy. It’s undermining our competitiveness.”
“And of course, this all feeds our competitors’ false narratives of our decline and division,” Blinken said. “And it reinforces their conviction, their false conviction that now is the time to challenge the United States and pursue their revisionist goals. It shakes the trust and confidence of our friends.”
The secretary called for renewed cooperation between the executive and legislative branches to improve upon the status quo.
“We have to do better by our people,” Blinken said. “We have to do better by our diplomacy. We have to do better by our foreign policy. We have to do better for our country.”
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