White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Senate Republicans on Tuesday for “obstructing” the appointment of Dilawar Syed as deputy secretary of the Small Business Administration.
Syed, she said, would be the highest-ranking Muslim in the Biden administration if he were confirmed and has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, yet Republicans on the Senate’s small business committee refused to show up to a hearing on his nomination last week.
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“Republicans, whose justification for opposing [Syed’s] nomination keeps shifting as argument after argument falls flat, continue to block a vote on his nomination,” Jean-Pierre said. “If for some reason they don’t believe he should be confirmed, they should just say so and vote ‘no.’ Instead, they are obstructing a vote from even taking place.”
It was the fourth time Senate GOPers had blocked a vote on Syed.
Syed sits on the board of Emgage Action, a Muslim advocacy organization that has been accused of holding anti-Israel positions. His supporters have, in turn, alleged anti-Muslim bias among his detractors, and some Jewish groups have come to Syed’s defense. Biden originally nominated Syed, a Pakistani American, for the SBA position in March.
Some Republican senators have said they oppose filling the SBA job until the administration commits to taking back close to $100 million in loans made to Planned Parenthood affiliates through the Paycheck Protection Program.
“They haven’t been forthcoming on any of this,” Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican and ranking member of the small business committee, told HuffPost last week. “So, we’re not really happy with that.”
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Whatever the objections, Jean-Pierre asked senators to put them aside and hold a vote on Syed’s nomination.
“As the SBA works to help small businesses build back from the devastation caused by this pandemic, we call on these Republican senators to do their job and show up and allow a vote on this qualified nominee,” she said.
