Those Senate "hold"
First Cruz holding ambassadors to Sweden and to Norway:
The Senate on Friday confirmed a handful of ambassadors and State Department officials, including the American ambassadors to Sweden and Norway — a move that came after Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, lifted his months-long hold on the nominations which were in place because of his objection to the Iran nuclear deal.
In the Senate any one senator can put a "hold" on a nomination, and Cruz had been blocking the speedy consideration of a number of nominations for the past seven months.
An aide to Cruz said that he decided to lift his hold Friday because "he feels that after seven months that the American people are very aware of the negative consequences of this deal."
Also contributing to the decision to lift his hold was the fact that the Senate unanimously passed Cruz's bill Friday to rename the plaza in front of the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. as "Liu Xiaobo Plaza," after pro-democracy dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Liu Xiaobo.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ambassadors-sweden-norway-confirmed-sen-cruz-lifts-hold-n517671
Sanders and Markey still are holding FDA commissioner
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday he has placed a hold on President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, claiming he is too close to the pharmaceutical industry to be an impartial regulator.
The move by the U.S. senator from Vermont comes one day after Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts also placed a hold on the nomination until the agency agrees to reform its process for approving opioid painkillers.
The nominee, Dr. Robert Califf, is a cardiologist and researcher who joined the FDA a year ago as a deputy commissioner. He previously held senior positions at Duke University, where he founded a large academic research center that received more than half of its funding from the drug industry.
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The FDA does not control drug prices, but Sanders said that "at a time when millions of Americans cannot afford to purchase the prescription drugs they require, we need a leader at the FDA who is prepared to stand up to the drug companies."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-robert-califf_us_56a7adb5e4b0b87beec6178c
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Is Markey up for reelection?