{"id":23876,"date":"2021-03-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2021\/03\/17\/colin-kahls-nomination-faces-hurdles-in-divided-senate\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:05:01","slug":"colin-kahls-nomination-faces-hurdles-in-divided-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/congress\/2021\/03\/17\/colin-kahls-nomination-faces-hurdles-in-divided-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Even with Democratic support, Colin Kahl faces long climb to the Pentagon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Colin Kahl<\/a>, nominated for the Pentagon\u2019s undersecretary for policy, remains stalled at the Senate Armed Services Committee, but even if he clears it, he could well face a gauntlet of tough votes toward confirmation by the 50-50 Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly two weeks after Kahl\u2019s confirmation hearing, the panel has held off scheduling a vote on whether to advance the nomination to the floor, forgoing a major test of whether Kahl has enough support to win confirmation in the Senate and President Joe Biden\u2019s clout in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If confirmed, the former national security advisor to then-Vice President Biden would be the Pentagon\u2019s No. 3 civilian, overseeing the Defense Department\u2019s policy shop, including its strategy, nuclear deterrence, missile defense and international cooperation plans and policies. But close observers say the role is unlikely to be filled before May because of Kahl\u2019s rocky confirmation process and the Senate\u2019s busy calendar before its two-week recess March 29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kahl, who encountered pointed questions from Republicans<\/a> for his Mideast policy positions and history of tweets attacking Republicans, faces solidifying opposition after SASC\u2019s influential top Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, told Politico that he wouldn\u2019t support the nomination. Democrats have largely refuted the depiction of Kahl as hyper-partisan, and Biden has stood behind him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats in the evenly divided Senate can confirm Biden\u2019s nominees without any Republican votes, but they have to unify and have Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote. If Kahl makes it out of committee, Biden and Democratic leaders would still have to juggle Kahl\u2019s tricky nomination with their legislative agenda and ten nominees already on the Senate\u2019s executive calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the Biden administration whether they want to go to the mat, but it\u2019s all doable,\u201d said Jim Manley, who was a senior aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. \u201cI personally would hope that if there\u2019s an obstacle the White House figures out a way to go around it, but that\u2019s difficult in a narrowly divided Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The U.S. Postal Service is considering closing post offices across the country, sparking worries ahead the anticipated surge of mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections, U.S. Sen Joe Manchin and a union leader said Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (Steve Helber, AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The smoothest path for Kahl would be a majority in the evenly-divided, 26-member SASC. But that\u2019s uncertain amid Republican opposition and wavering from West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin<\/a> \u2015 a potential swing vote on the committee and in the Senate \u2015 who said publicly he is undecided, even after speaking with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House pulled Biden\u2019s first nominee for budget director, Neera Tanden, amid opposition from Manchin and Republicans over her caustic online criticism of lawmakers. Like Tanden, Kahl has apologized for his \u201csometimes disrespectful\u201d remarks on social media, pledging to serve in a nonpartisan fashion if confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the Armed Services committee, where Inhofe and four others oppose Kahl, Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va., announced their opposition last week. Rubio said Kahl\u2019s \u201chateful and unhinged rhetoric toward our fellow Americans is the exact opposite\u201d of Biden\u2019s campaign pledges to unify the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Democrats have claimed a double standard. \u201cThis is again another example of Republicans complaining about mean tweets, and yet, these same Republicans never criticized [President Donald Trump] for all the outrageous invective and\/or racist rhetoric he spewed on Twitter 24 hours a day,\u201d Manley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the SASC splits evenly between Republicans and Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would have to file a discharge petition to advance the nomination to the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, Republicans could obstruct Kahl\u2019s nomination, which would mean he\u2019d face as many as four Senate floor votes: a cloture vote on the discharge petition, a vote on the petition itself, a cloture vote on his nomination and a vote on the nomination itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manley suggested Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who bucked Democratic President Barack Obama to oppose the 2015 Iran nuclear deal would be one lawmaker to watch because of Kahl\u2019s long record of vocal advocacy for the deal. (Menendez hasn\u2019t taken a public position on Kahl\u2019s nomination.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel \u2015 the only nominee for defense secretary to be filibustered \u2015 stepped down in 2014<\/a>, his troubled tenure was blamed on a bruising confirmation process and his alienation from the White House. Would Kahl emerge hobbled by a narrow confirmation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

James Miller, who served as an undersecretary of defense for policy under Hagel, said Kahl\u2019s effectiveness, if confirmed, is assured by Kahl\u2019s ties to Biden and his close work with Austin when Kahl led Mideast policy for DoD and Austin was U.S. Central Command chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColin has the most important thing for the undersecretary of policy, which is the complete trust of the secretary of defense,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThe folks in uniform will see he had a close vote and wonder if he\u2019s not as powerful, but what matters for anyone in OSD, particularly on the policy side, is the backing of the SecDef.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once Biden’s nominee for Pentagon policy chief makes it out of committee, the fight’s not 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