All news

US Senate will consider nomination of Mike Pompeo as new Secretary of State on April 12

At the hearings members of the committee ask those who apply to different key administrative posts various questions

WASHINGTON, April 7. /TASS/. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a nomination hearing to consider Mike Pompeo to become new Secretary of State on April 12, a spokesperson with the committee told TASS.

"Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today announced that the nomination hearing to consider Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State will occur on April 12," a spokesperson with the committee said.

At the hearings members of the committee ask those who apply to different key administrative posts various questions. Mainly they ask them about policies they plan to conduct. After that the committee must vote for the candidate or reject him.

If the candidate is approved, his candidacy is put for the vote to the whole upper house of the Congress.

It is expected that the Republicans, who are now controlling the Senate, won’t reject the candidacy of Pompeo. Earlier the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate Chuck Schumer said he hopes CIA Director Mike Pompeo will "turn over a new leaf" as secretary of state and toughen policies toward Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.

On March 13, US President Donald Trump announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had been dismissed and Michael Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, would replace him.

Officially Tillerson's powers ceased on March 31, now the duties of the Secretary of State are performed by his first deputy, John Sullivan. Trump nominated Gina Haspel, who is currently Deputy Director of the CIA, as the new director of the intelligence service.