Five months after he was nominated to the post of U.S. Ambassador to India, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti will get a confirmation hearing with the U.S. Senate. Mr. Garcetti will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations committee on Tuesday, as per the Senate calendar.
The hearing, which comes five months after Mr Garcetti was nominated, has been held up like other Biden nominations, by Republican Senators, notably Ted Cruz, as leverage, to get Mr Biden to impose sanctions with regard to the Russia-Europe Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
Mr Garcetti, who has been mayor of Los Angeles since 2013, is a former intelligence officer from the U.S. Navy. His term as mayor ends in December 2022.
As part of the confirmation process, the office of the chairman (Democrat) of the Senate committee, Bob Menendez, is looking into a lawsuit against Mr. Garcetti’s former deputy, Rick Jacobs, according to Los Angeles Times. Mr Garcetti’s former bodyguard, Matthew Garza, has said in a lawsuit that he was harassed by Mr Jacobs and that Mr Garcetti , who was aware of some of the behaviour, did not stop it. Mr Garcetti has denied the allegations.
President of the University of Pennsylvania, Amy Gutmann and diplomat Donald Blome, nominees for ambassadorships to Germany and Pakistan respectively, will also appear before the Senate committee on Tuesday.
