From the Washington Times:
Freshman senator, Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, has blocked President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Vietnam.
Rubio’s hold on the nomination of David Shear, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, who since 2009 has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State, is the first hold for the Obama administration.Shear was expected to sail through the Foreign Relations Committee, as all other ambassador-designates have, but troubling developments at the Department of State, led adoption advocates and adoptive families to mount a challenge to Shear’s nomination.
Last week Senator Rubio placed a hold on the nomination in an effort to get assistance for American families whose children are stranded in orphanages in Vietnam. His hold follows that of Senator Dick Lugar, Republican from Indiana, who initially placed a hold on Shear nomination last month amid concerns.
“Senator Lugar placed a temporary hold on Ambassador-designate Shear’s nomination in an effort to secure information about the status of assistance to American families with pending adoption cases in Vietnam, explains Andy Fisher, a senior aide to Lugar. “This included responses to requests made by the families to obtain copies of their respective adoption files from the Departments of State and Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the families had encountered innumerable roadblocks in this regard.
American families who received referrals for orphans in Vietnam more than three years ago are in limbo as the United States rethinks its international adoption policy. Known as “pipeline families, these U.S. citizens were matched with orphan children, their paperwork processed in the U.S and in Vietnam.
Then, requirements in both countries began to change. These children and their families have been caught in a cycle of shifting regulations.
For the past three years, the families have grown to known their children through visits. These American families provided medical care, emotional support, toys, books and clothing for their children while they are being raised in an orphanage overseas.
Adoption advocates asked that that these adoptions be grandfathered in under the rules in which these adoptions were originally processed.
They urge that the subsequent DNA matches, relinquishment records from birth mothers and other paperwork be accepted so that these children can be reunited with their families while the United States and Vietnam work out the final details of inter-country adoptions going forward.
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