Congress
Victory Institute urges Senate to confirm key LGBTQ Biden nominees
Letter addressed to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
The LGBTQ Victory Institute will issue a letter on Friday urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to move for a vote on 11 LGBTQ nominees for key posts in the Biden administration, the group told the Washington Blade.
The letter notes that several of these appointments have languished before the Senate and its committees for more than 100 days since they were first announced by the White House, underscoring the urgency for lawmakers to take action in the waning days before the new Congress is seated in January.
Victory Institute Senior Manager for Presidential Appointments Jonathan Dromgoole told the Blade that the group will continue advocating on behalf of the candidates if Congress fails to approve them by the year’s end — in which case they must be re-nominated by President Joe Biden to begin the approvals process anew.
Dromgoole echoed the praise in the Victory Institute’s letter for the strides that Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and pro-LGBTQ legislators in the Senate have made to nominate and approve a record number of LGBTQ candidates to serve in the administration, as well as their success in passing the historic Respect for Marriage Act, which was signed into law this week.
At the same time, “we’re really urging Sen. Schumer — who has the power to do this, to bring these folks up to a vote — to take action, because they’ve truly been waiting long enough,” Dromgoole said.
Confirming these nominees is essential, not just for reasons of representation and the need to include LGBTQ people in policymaking, but also for Americans more broadly, Dromgoole said. Having qualified candidates seated and serving in these key government posts will benefit everyone, perhaps especially when those positions would otherwise remain vacant, he said.
The 11 LGBTQ nominees awaiting Senate confirmation includes six jurists who were picked to fill open judgeships in U.S. federal district courts, a candidate nominated for foreign ambassadorships, and individuals who were selected for key posts at the Departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Federal Communications Commission.
If confirmed, Gigi Sohn, Biden’s pick for FCC commissioner, would provide the key votes necessary to pass rules and policies that have been held up for more than a year because of the agency’s bipartisan leadership structure, with voting commissioners from both parties serving under Democratic Chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
Sohn’s confirmation process has been embroiled in conflict, perhaps in large part because of Republican opposition to rules and policies that would pass with her tie-breaking votes.
Nevertheless, and especially with respect to the other 10 candidates, Dromgoole said partisan political disagreements should have nothing to do with the Senate’s deliberations. These nominees are qualified and ready to do the work, he said. “They are there to really look at the laws and interpret those laws in a nonpartisan way” on behalf of the American people.
More broadly, Dromgoole said, the 11 nominees “really do represent and give effect to the president’s mission, to make sure that the appointees look like America. And in this case, yes, we’re focused on LGBTQ individuals as part of the Victory Institute’s work. But a lot of these folks hold multiple identities that they’re able to bring into their jobs on day one.”
“And I think the timing is right with both President Biden and the pro LGBTQ mandate that the Senate has right now, to get these folks over the finish line in these last critical weeks. So, we’re hopeful and we’re going to continue to champion them and all of our appointees as we move forward.”
The Victory Institute’s Presidential Appointments Initiative was started during the Clinton White House, during which time Dromgoole said only about 30 LGBTQ people were working in the administration.
The group claims to have had a hand in 40 percent of the LGBTQ individuals who were selected and approved for key roles in the Biden-Harris administration — the most inclusive to-date, with 15 percent identifying as LGBTQ.
Congress
Five HIV/AIDS activists arrested outside Susan Collins’s D.C. office
Protesters demanded full PEPFAR funding
U.S. Capitol Police on Tuesday arrested five HIV/AIDS activists who protested outside U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)’s office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.
A press release that Housing Works, Health GAP, and Disability Voters of Maine issued notes 30 HIV/AIDS activists “carried out an act of civil disobedience” at Collins’s D.C. office and “delivered mock ‘bodybags'” to her office in Portland, Maine.
“Activists were reacting to deadly harms caused by Collins’s unwillingness to hold Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought accountable for illegally obstructing the release of already appropriated funding for lifesaving HIV treatment and prevention,” reads the press release.
Elizabeth Koke, senior director of brand strategy for Housing Works, told the Washington Blade that Housing Works CEO Charles King is among those who were arrested in D.C. The press release notes 30 HIV/AIDS activists participated in the protest.
Activists since the Trump-Vance administration took office in January have demanded full PEPFAR funding.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio Jan. 28 issued a waiver that allowed PEPFAR and other “life-saving humanitarian assistance” programs to continue to operate during the freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign aid spending. HIV/AIDS service providers around the world with whom the Blade has spoken say PEPFAR cuts and the loss of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which officially closed on July 1, has severely impacted their work. (The State Department last month announced PEPFAR will distribute lenacapavir, a breakthrough HIV prevention drug, in countries with high prevalence rates.)
The New York Times in August reported Vought “apportioned” only $2.9 billion of $6 billion that Congress set aside for PEPFAR for fiscal year 2025. (PEPFAR in the coming fiscal year will use funds allocated in fiscal year 2024.)
Bipartisan opposition in the U.S. Senate prompted the Trump-Vance administration in July withdraw a proposal to cut $400 million from PEPFAR’s budget. Vought on Aug. 29 said he would use a “pocket rescission” to cancel $4.9 billion in foreign aid that Congress had already approved.
The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1.
“In July, we applauded Collins’s willingness to fight for people with HIV which resulted in a temporary reprieve from further unlawful cuts,” said Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell. “In response, Vought has gone behind Collins’s back. Why isn’t she fighting back? We cannot allow Collins to refuse to take action now — just because Vought is violating the law doesn’t mean she can break her promise to people with HIV.”
Collins chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“Collins has said that PEPFAR funds are not reaching people in need, yet she refuses to use the full power of her position to end the political obstruction and lawlessness while people continue to die,” said Marie Follayttar of Disability Voters of Maine. “The consequences of her inaction, and of her votes, will be measured in body bags around the world.”
The protesters’ press release notes two specific demands for Collins:
• Fully restore PEPFAR programming by directing Vought to release withheld PEPFAR funding consistent with Congressional appropriations
• Include the release of withheld PEPFAR funding as part of her 6-point plan to re-open government
“Senator Collins has been the Senate champion for PEPFAR and was responsible for saving the program from $400 million in cuts just three months ago,” Blake Kernen, Collins’s press secretary, told the Blade on Wednesday. “It was difficult to understand what the protesters wanted or their message.”
“Many entered the office, sat on the ground, and used a loud noisemaker, which made it impossible to hear,” said Kernen. “A member of Sen. Collins’s staff offered to speak with the group, but they continued to shout over her and refused the offer.”
Congress
Mike Waltz confirmed as next UN ambassador
Trump nominated former national security advisor in May
The U.S. Senate on Sept. 19 confirmed former U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) as the next U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
The Florida Republican had been the national security advisor until President Donald Trump in May tapped him after U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) withdrew her nomination in order to ensure Republicans maintained their narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Senators approved Waltz’s nomination by a 47-43 vote margin.
“Thank you President Trump and the U.S. Senate for your trust and confidence to Make the UN Great Again,” said Waltz on X.
The U.N. General Assembly is taking place this week in New York. Trump is scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
Congress
State Department urged to restore LGBTQ-specific information in human rights reports
Congressional Equality Caucus sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio a letter on Sept. 9
The Congressional Equality Caucus has called upon the State Department to once again include LGBTQ and intersex people in their annual human rights report.
U.S. Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Julie Johnson (D-Texas), and Sarah McBride (D-Del.), who co-chair the caucus’s International LGBTQI+ Rights Task Force, spearheaded a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sept. 9.
The 2024 human rights report the State Department released last month did not include LGBTQ-specific references. Jessica Stern, the former special U.S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights under the Biden-Harris administration who co-founded the Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice, described the removal of LGBTQ and intersex people and other groups from the report as “deliberate erasure.”
“We strongly oppose your decision to remove the subsection on Acts of Violence Criminalization, and Other Abuses Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity or Expression, or Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC Subsection) from the State Department’s Annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (Human Rights Reports),” reads the letter. “We urge you to restore this information, or else ensure it is integrated throughout each human rights report.”
Congress requires the State Department to release a human rights report each year.
The Congressional Equality Caucus’s letter points out the human rights reports “have been a critical source of information on human rights violations and abuses against LGBTQI+ persons around the world.” It specifically notes consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in more than 60 countries, and the 2017 human rights report included “details on the state-sponsored and societal violence against LGBTQI+ persons in Chechnya, including extrajudicial killings.”
Immigration Equality in response to the 2024 human rights report said the reports “serve as key evidence for asylum seekers, attorneys, judges, and advocates who rely on them to assess human rights conditions and protection claims worldwide.”
“The information in these reports is critical — not just for human rights advocates — but also for Americans traveling abroad,” reads the Congressional Equality Caucus’s letter. “LGBTQI+ Americans and their families must continue to have access to comprehensive, reliable information about a country’s human rights record so they can plan travel and take appropriate precautions.”
The caucus’s full letter can be read here.
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