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Floor Speech

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. I come to the floor today, Mr. President, to support the nomination of David Kostelancik to be U.S. Ambassador to Albania.

For over 35 years, Mr. Kostelancik has served as a career member of the Foreign Service and a qualified and exemplary candidate to represent the United States in an allied capital. He also served in Congress as the senior State Department adviser to the Helsinki Commission.

Like so many of our career Foreign Service officers, Mr. Kostelancik has dedicated his career to serving the United States at home and abroad. He served in Albania before, as well as overseas assignments in Turkiye, Russia, and Hungary, where he led our Embassy as Charge d'Affaires for nearly 2 years. Most recently, he served as Foreign Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

It is clear that we have a highly qualified candidate to serve as Ambassador to Albania. But I also want to talk about why it is so critical that we confirm an ambassador to Albania and that we do it without delay.

Albania is a real success story for American foreign policy. Just 30 years ago, Albania was waking up from more than four decades of communist rule. Today, Albania is a flourishing democracy, a fully engaged member of NATO, and an aspiring member of the European Union.

It was Albania in 2016 that answered our calls to take in vulnerable Iranian dissidents from Camp Ashraf. It was Albania back in 2021 that didn't think twice when they answered the call to accommodate Afghan refugees and SIV applicants. So what message does it send to Albania--a critical partner, a stalwart ally of the United States--that we can't confirm an ambassador for over a year?

Albania is currently the only NATO capital in which we do not have a confirmed Ambassador. As the United States confronts challenges around the world, we need our allies. We need Albania. That starts with ensuring that we have the stewards of our bilateral relationships in place. I can tell you, China and Russia have Ambassadors in Albania's capital right now. It is up to the U.S. Senate to determine whether we cede ground to our adversaries.

Mr. Kostelancik has the necessary experience. He speaks Albanian. He is eminently qualified to fill the post for which he was nominated.

For these reasons, I urge no further delays in confirming Mr. Kostelancik's nomination.

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Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I don't understand what my colleague is talking about in terms of woke ideology and cultural imperialism. That is not my understanding of how the State Department works.

The State Department and our Ambassadors are there to carry out America's foreign policy no matter who the President is, and that is what David Kostelancik did when he was in Hungary.

So I am perplexed by the arguments that are raised by my colleague from Utah. His objections are grounded in baseless rumors that are being spread by Victor Orban. They are not grounded in facts.

Here are the facts: Mr. Kostelancik received overwhelming support, bipartisan support, when he was voted out, on two occasions, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In the 35 years--35 years--of Mr. Kostelancik's service to the U.S. Government, he had never been accused of any political bias until Victor Orban decided that he didn't think he was executing America's foreign policy properly.

Mr. Kostelancik has served the American public faithfully across administrations of both parties. He has represented elected leaders' positions.

I have spoken with a number of my Republican colleagues. I wish my colleague from Utah were going to stay so I could talk to him about this, because he has gotten support from those Republicans precisely for the reasons I outlined above.

It is up to my colleagues whether they will listen to the recommendation of former administration officials and their own Republican colleagues or take heed of the baseless allegations of a foreign leader, who is ostensibly an ``ally,'' who is making false, unproven claims of impartiality. I have looked for evidence. There is zero evidence to that effect. In fact, I have letters here from a former Governor, a Republican Governor, of New York, George Pataki. I have letters from the Albanian American Council in support of Mr. Kostelancik. What is more, a number of senior Republican officials, including the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, who served under the Trump administration, have repudiated this claim.

So I don't know why my Republican colleague today is willing to believe a government that has shown more loyalty to Vladimir Putin and President Xi than he has to the United States, or is my colleague from Utah prepared to trust the repeated commitments made by the nominee-- and senior-level Republicans--that he served in Budapest with the utmost professionalism? That is the question. Is he willing to trust that, to trust all of the people who have weighed in on behalf of Mr. Kostelancik, who, by all accounts in reading his public remarks as Charge d'Affaires, defended the Trump administration policy ably while in Budapest? That is what Ambassadors do when they are serving overseas--they defend the policies of the United States of America and whoever the President is and whoever the Secretary of State is.

Those charged with the conduct of U.S. foreign policy are proud civil servants. They believe in our institutions, and they represent the American people no matter which party is in office.

I am disappointed that what we have today is a number of people--a number of our colleagues who would rather denounce the United States and our foreign policy, who would rather oppose career Ambassadors who have been in the job for years, because they support Victor Orban, because they are spreading rumors about what people have done that have no basis in fact.

I intend to come back to the floor on a number of occasions--whenever I can--to ask for unanimous consent again because what is happening now is not in the best interest of the United States. When we refuse to confirm Ambassadors, we are hamstringing our foreign policy and we are harming U.S. national security. Right now, there are over 30 State Department nominees who are waiting for Senate confirmation, and by grinding to a halt our State Department nominees, my Republican colleagues have allowed partisan brinksmanship to pervade a critical aspect of our national security.

It is one I don't understand because I know we are in agreement that the United States is threatened by adversaries like Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea--all threats to the United States. Yet they are willing to allow President Xi's diplomats to get placed in countries all around the world, and they are not willing to let our own diplomats get placed.

So I hope they will reconsider because what they are doing at its core is putting at risk America's national security.

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