Top Republicans accused President Joe Biden of ignoring the authority of Congress by appointing John Podesta as special climate envoy to replace John Kerry but pretending that it is a new position, the Washington Examiner reported Wednesday.
Podesta is a veteran Democratic strategist and White House adviser on green energy overseeing the implementation of Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, a massive climate spending law.
The appointment "appears to be a blatant attempt to sidestep congressional oversight and install Mr. Podesta in a position that under federal law requires the advice and consent of the United States Senate," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., ranking member for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, wrote to Biden.
The lawmakers told the president: "We are alarmed at your apparent decision to circumvent the law. This appointment is another example of your administration's practice of creating new offices that do not require Senate confirmation or that do not have explicit statutory missions and constraints. By placing considerable policy authority with these individuals, you demonstrate a flagrant disregard for the separation of powers and congressional authority under both the Constitution and federal law."
In the letter, McMorris Rodgers and Capito cited how Biden created Kerry's unique role as special presidential envoy for climate (SPEC) under the State Department without Kerry facing Senate confirmation.
The Republican lawmakers wrote that they are particularly puzzled by the Podesta situation, because in response to concerns from lawmakers in 2021 over Kerry's position, the president approved a law requiring any "special envoy" or similar roles to be subject to Senate confirmation, and there "appears to be no distinction between [Podesta's] new title and the role of the SPEC."
The lawmakers said that "the mere fact that Mr. Podesta will receive a different title and will be based in the White House, rather than the Department of State like his predecessor, does not obviate this statutory obligation. Any objective observer would reasonably suspect that you crafted Mr. Podesta's 'new' position to circumvent a recently enacted law so as to duck accountability to Congress and impede or subvert oversight efforts."