Holds placed on four nominees to posts at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) need to be removed, USTR Robert Lighthizer urged during the post-negotiation presser following the Montreal-based NAFTA 2.0 talks.
"We've had 230 days since we nominated the first deputy, and I've had none confirmed. Are we slow or is the Senate slow?" Lighthizer said. "And these guys are all going to get 80 votes. Right? It's not like these are controversial people, 51 votes. No! It's just a bad process. ... So how many negotiations am I going to do?"
The nominations have been held up by both Democrats and Republicans and include Gregg Doud who was nominated to be the chief U.S. ag negotiator.