Washington, D.C. – Today, after the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bipartisan resolution urging President Obama to nominate a  permanent Inspector General for the State Department, Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) issued the following statement on President Obama’s intention to nominate Steve A. Linick to serve as the State Department Inspector General:

“Having pressed both the President and Secretary Kerry on this issue, I’m glad the President has finally decided to nominate someone to fill the vacant position of Inspector General.  This announcement is long overdue.  I am puzzled as to why the President thought it was acceptable to have no top cop on the beat at the State Department for nearly 2,000 days, especially as the Office of the Inspector General is reviewing the Accountability Review Board’s (ARB) investigation of the deadly Benghazi attack and looking into allegations that senior political appointees unduly influenced internal investigations of administrative and criminal misconduct.”      

Note:  Chairman Royce and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY) have previously pressed President Obama to nominate a permanent Inspector General at the State Department.  Today, the Committee passed H.Res. 273, introduced by Royce and Engel, which urges the President to nominate a permanent Inspector General.  In April, Chairman Royce pressed Secretary Kerry to explain efforts to fill the long-time vacancy.  In February, Royce and Engel wrote letters to President Obama and Secretary Kerry addressing the immediate need to nominate a qualified IG, an issue Royce and Engel described as “essential to the proper functioning” of the State Department.

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