WASHINGTON, August 30. /TASS/. The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations may hold hearings on approving Jon Huntsman as Washington’s new envoy to Moscow in mid-September, although their exact date remains to be set, US officials and media said.
A Senate source told TASS that the day of hearings remains to be formally set. She gave no further information on possible dates.
However, the Deseret News newspaper from the state of Utah, where Huntsman earlier served as a governor, said, citing own sources, that the confirmation hearings may be held "when Congress returns from its recess on Sept. 5, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee possibly holding a hearing the following week," namely between September 11 and 15.
The White House reported on July 20 that President Trump sent to the Senate a letter of nomination for "Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., of Utah, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Russian Federation."
Committee Chairman Bob Corker earlier told TASS in a brief conversation that he was sure that his candidacy "will be confirmed overwhelmingly." He also said the date of the hearings was not set before the recess, because the committee has not yet received all the necessary paperwork.
Huntsman, 57, served as the governor of the US state of Utah between 2005 and 2009. He speaks Chinese and is a father of seven children. The politician became the youngest ambassador over a century in the country’s history, when in 1992 he was appointed the US ambassador to Singapore at the age of 32.
Former US President Barack Obama appointed him the country’s ambassador to China in 2009 and he served in that post until 2011. Financial magazine Forbes estimated his wealth in 2016 at $1 billion.
If appointed, Huntsmann will replace John Tefft, who was appointed to this post in July 2014.