John Cornyn threatens to hold up Trump nominees over AIDS funding

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is threatening to hold up two of President Donald Trump's nominees for ambassadorships if he doesn't   release AIDS funding appropriated by Congress.

In an interview published by Semafor Tuesday, the Texas said he would not support advancing Kari Lake's nomination to be ambassador to Jamaica or Doug Mastriano's bid to become ambassador to Slovakia unless the White House confirms it will distribute money   from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a fund created by President George W. Bush in 2003 to combat the HIV outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Cornyn is a member, is set to take up Lake's nomination on Wednesday.

"The only way it seems like you can get the administration's attention on some of these funding issues is by using the leverage to withhold votes on nominees," Cornyn said. "We are going to use the committee vote tomorrow as a way to… get the money distributed the way Congress appropriated it."

If Cornyn votes against Lake and Democrats on the committee   unanimously oppose her, her nomination will fail to proceed.

Since losing his reelection campaign to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in May, Cornyn has become increasingly critical of Trump.

He has questioned the qualifications of Trump's initial pick to replace Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and said he no longer plans to push legislation renaming an interstate highway in Trump's honor.

Cornyn estimated $1.3 billion in AIDS funding is ready to be released, according to Semafor.

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