Afghanistan hearing cancelled due to “debt ceiling related craziness”
First it was Congress’s Libya debate that was postponed due to the ongoing fight over the debt ceiling and the budget. Now, oversight of the war in Afghanistan is falling victim to the chaos in Congress as well. The Senate Armed Services Committee cancelled a scheduled Tuesday hearing on Afghanistan that was supposed to feature ...
First it was Congress’s Libya debate that was postponed due to the ongoing fight over the debt ceiling and the budget. Now, oversight of the war in Afghanistan is falling victim to the chaos in Congress as well.
The Senate Armed Services Committee cancelled a scheduled Tuesday hearing on Afghanistan that was supposed to feature testimony from two prominent and outgoing officials: Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. James Cartwright. A separate panel was to be comprised of Ambassador James Dobbins, Gen. Wesley Clark, and Gen. John Keane.
"It was canceled due to other Senate business. We expect it to be rescheduled after the Senate’s August recess," SASC spokeswoman Tara Andringa told The Cable.
Another Hill aide confirmed that "other Senate business" referred to "debt ceiling related craziness."
Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is still planning on going ahead with confirmation hearings for two ambassadors currently serving under recess appointments: Frank Ricciardone, Jr., to be Ambassador to Turkey and Norm Eisen, to be Ambassador to the Czech Republic.
And Wednesday the fireworks will fly when SFRC holds confirmation on two of the more controversial State Department nominees: Robert Ford, the recess appointed ambassador to Syria, and Wendy Sherman, the nominee for undersecretary of State for political affairs.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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