Inside U.S. trade - Finance Fails To Vote On USTR Punke, Siddiqui Nominations

Daily News - Monday, November 23, 2009

Inside U.S. trade - Finance Fails To Vote On USTR Punke, Siddiqui Nominations

The Senate Finance Committee did not vote on the nominations of Michael Punke to be Deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Islam Siddiqui to be chief agriculture negotiator at USTR on Saturday (Nov. 21) on the sidelines of a Senate cloture vote on health care legislation, according to a USTR source.

The Senate is out until Monday, Nov. 30, for the Thanksgiving holiday.

USTR had hoped Punke would be confirmed prior to the Nov. 30 beginning of the World Trade Organization ministerial in Geneva.

Finance on Nov. 20 was forced to postpone the vote for the second time due to the lack of a quorum after moving the original vote scheduled for Nov. 19 for the same reason (Inside U.S. Trade, Nov. 20).