Confirmation hearing for Mayor Barrett's ambassadorship to begin Tuesday amid potential roadblocks
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Tuesday, Mayor Barrett's confirmation hearing for his ambassadorship to Luxembourg is scheduled to begin. Soon we'll know more about what the process will look like for the mayor.
The question is, will the mayor's office be moving from City Hall to across the Atlantic to Luxembourg? But local political science experts said it could be tough for him to get confirmed.
"President Biden has nominated scores of ambassadors just like Tom Barrett, and very few of them have squeaked out the committee and gotten to the floor and been approved," said UWM Professor Emeritus of Political Science Mordecai Lee.
Lee said he feels like the nomination of Barrett as ambassador to Luxembourg will likely be no different.
"I'm very skeptical that the U.S. Senate is going to vote on his nomination in time for that late December cut-off, in fact I'm skeptical that his nomination has come up at all, that's how bad the U.S. Senate has gotten," said Lee.
Which could have an impact on you, the taxpayers, having to deal with a special election further down the road if he does end up being confirmed.
"I think we have to be very patient and pessimistic about the chances of the special election occurring efficiently," said Lee.
Lee said it all has to do with senators like Republican Ted Cruz obstinately holding up consensus votes like these.
"What it's doing is slowing down the U.S. Senate, which was already a slow institution, to almost a dead stop," said Lee.
An issue that Lee says could have repercussions to foreign policy, as these ambassadors are the people who represent not the nation, but the presidential administration, to the rest of the world.
"So countries feel disadvantaged if they don't have the president's person, the president's man or president's woman, in the embassy doing business with them," said Lee.
If the the mayor is appointed, and officially leaves office, Common Council President Cavalier Johnson will be acting mayor until that special election is held.