Go to Content Go to Navigation Go to Navigation Go to Site Search Homepage

International Population and Refugee Programs Jeopardized

New York and Washington, DC — Exercising his prerogative to act without Senate confirmation when Congress is not in session, President Bush has appointed Ellen Sauerbrey to be Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees, Population, and Migration to serve until the end of 2006. Forgoing further efforts to gain Congressional approval for a faltering nomination, the White House has resorted to a recess appointment, a tactic used only in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

The action has drawn widespread criticism from groups concerned with international population and reproductive health, which strenuously opposed the nomination. (A partial list is at the end of this statement.)"There is no justification whatsoever for the President's circumventing the Senate's confirmation process in this case," said Carmen Barroso, Western Hemisphere Regional Director of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. "There is no emergency that warrants this action. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not even voted on the nomination." Indeed it appears that the President acted to pre-empt the nomination's anticipated defeat. He acted in a similar fashion with the recess appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, but in that case, Bolton had been voted on by the Foreign Relations Committed and had failed to gain their endorsement. We share the view of Senator Barbara Boxer, a member of the committee, who said today, "Once again, this President has bypassed the normal procedures to put his cronies in office to the detriment of the American people, and in this particular case, the people of the world."

President Bush nominated Ms. Sauerbrey in September, despite her lack of experience in the issues of refugees or migration or in running an agency with a billion-dollar budget. Currently the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and a twice-losing candidate for governor of Maryland, her sole "qualification," opponents charge, is her decades of loyal service to the Republican Party.

"Sauerbrey's record at the United Nations has been a relentless effort to foist the Administration's anti-choice agenda onto international bodies dealing with population and reproductive health and rights," said Jodi Jacobson, Executive Director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity. "Although she failed at the UN, we fear that she will pursue the same agenda, with much greater influence, through her position at the State Department."

As the New York Times observed, in one of the more than thirty editorials from all over the country opposing Sauerbrey's nomination, "Mr. Bush's selection of Ms. Sauerbrey conjures up memories of Michael Brown, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [and responsible for the Hurricane Katrina debacle]. Senate Republicans should think hard about the mismatch between Ms. Sauerbrey's credentials and the life-and-death responsibilities of this job." The Senate has been denied the opportunity to render that judgment.

This statement is endorsed by the following organizations:
International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region
Center for Health and Gender and Equity (CHANGE)
Advocates for Youth
Catholics for a Free Choice
Center for Women Policy Studies
Feminist Majority
Ipas
People for the American Way
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Sexuality Education and Information Council of the U.S.
The White House Project
Women's Environment and Development Organization

Source

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Contact

Gil Kulick, 212-214-0233
or Dan Klotz, 917-438-4613

Published

May 12, 2014

We and our third partners use cookies and other tools to collect, store, monitor, and analyze information about your interaction with our site to improve performance, analyze your use of our sites and assist in our marketing efforts. You may opt out of the use of these cookies and other tools at any time by visiting Cookie Settings. By clicking “Allow All Cookies” you consent to our collection and use of such data, and our Terms of Use. For more information, see our Privacy Notice.

Cookie Settings

We, and our third-party partners, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking technologies to collect, store, monitor, and process certain information about you when you access and use our services, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences, or your device. We use that information to make the site work, analyze performance and traffic on our website, to provide a more personalized web experience, and assist in our marketing efforts. We also share information with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. You can change your default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of required cookies when utilizing our site; this includes necessary cookies that help our site to function (such as remembering your cookie preference settings). For more information, please see our Privacy Notice.

Marketing

On

We use online advertising to promote our mission and help constituents find our services. Marketing pixels help us measure the success of our campaigns.

User Feedback and Session Replay

On

We use qualitative data from LogRocket, UserZoom, Hotjar and AB Tasty to learn about your user experience and improve our products and services. LogRocket allows us to view session replays.