Subject: Politico: Roberta Jacobson confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Mexico
From: "Garcia, Walter" <[email-masked]>
To: Comm_D <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 18:05:35 -0700

Finallyyyyyyy. Lots of dealmaking involved.
Roberta Jacobson confirmed as U.S. ambassador to Mexico<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/roberta-jacobson-confirmed-mexico-222613?cmpid=sf>
By Seung Min Kim<http://www.politico.com/staff/seung-min-kim>

The Senate finally confirmed Roberta Jacobson to be the U.S. ambassador to Mexico on Thursday, ending a months-long delay of her nomination that was ultimately resolved by a complicated deal that drew in two Senate Republicans who had vied for president.

Jacobson, a top State Department official, had faced objections from senators related to her work on implementing the Obama administration’s controversial policy normalizing relations with Cuba. In November, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who at the time was deep into his presidential run, put a hold on her nomination while publicly criticizing her work at State.

But the wheels began to turn toward getting Jacobson installed this month, after Rubio returned to the Senate following his failed presidential bid. Senate GOP leaders and the White House approached Rubio, asking him what would make him lift his Jacobson blockade, according to a Senate aide.

Rubio’s ask: an extension of a 2014 law he wrote that imposed sanctions on key officials in Venezuela, home to another regime that has been the target of Rubio’s wrath.

That set up intricate maneuvering with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who said he would block the extension Rubio wanted unless he could get Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to back off his nearly yearlong hold on a separate measure reauthorizing the State Department, according to the Senate aide.

Cruz — who has also been busy campaigning for president — had put a blanket hold on the legislation and all nominees to the State Department last summer because of the administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. But Rubio asked Cruz to drop his hold, according to the Senate aide, in exchange for helping to push legislation Cruz has championed that would rename the street in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington the Liu Xiaobo Plaza. That legislation was crucial<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/senate-confirms-diplomatic-nominees-219213> for Cruz to lift his hold on the State Department nominees in February, although the White House has warned<http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/ted-cruz-china-bill-diplomat-nominees-219219> that it would veto Cruz’s legislation.

Alongside Jacobson’s confirmation, the Senate also swiftly cleared the State Department authorization bill for the current fiscal year, as well as Rubio’s bill that extended sanctions for three years, in rapid succession Thursday evening.

“The Maduro regime’s abuses of power and violations of human rights are hurting innocent people in our hemisphere and threaten the national security interests of the United States," Rubio said after the sanctions legislation passed Thursday night. "We have a responsibility to stand with the Venezuelan people by extending these sanctions.”

The moves ended a nearly yearlong saga over Jacobson’s nomination, which had drawn an intraparty rift among Republicans, many of whom supported her despite objections from Cuban-American lawmakers such as Rubio who are vociferously opposed to the administration’s Cuba policy.

But other Republicans argued that it was unfair to hold Jacobson, whose nomination passed the Foreign Relations Committee in November, hostage over Cuba politics.

“On issues ranging from trade to migration to security and the border, the interests of the United States are served and Arizona benefits when our nation is well-represented in Mexico,” Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, Jacobson’s most vocal Republican supporter, said after she was confirmed. “Though long overdue, I’m pleased that the Senate has confirmed an individual as qualified and capable as Roberta Jacobson to serve as U.S. ambassador to Mexico.”

Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the confirmation in a statement, praising Jacobson's "tremendous service record in the State Department."