Nearly two years after he was first nominated to the post, Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was confirmed by the Senate to serve as U.S. ambassador to India.
The final vote was 52-42, ending the 20-month saga over Garcetti's nomination.
"I’m thrilled with today’s outcome, which was a decisive and bipartisan decision to fill a critical post that has been vacant for far too long," Garcetti said in a statement to Spectrum News. "Now the hard work begins."
The Senate's action now gives President Joe Biden a permanent ambassador to India, a key posting amid growing tensions worldwide, more than halfway into his term in office.
"The United States-India relationship is extremely important, and it’s a very good thing we now have an ambassador," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after a procedural vote earlier Wednesday.
President Biden first nominated Garcetti, a co-chair of his 2020 presidential campaign and later his inaugural committee, to serve in the post in July 2021. Garcetti's candidacy was long in limbo over concerns about his handling of a sexual harassment scandal involving a former aide.
Questions arose during the confirmation process about what Garcetti knew, and when, about sexual harassment allegations against his friend and once-close adviser, Rick Jacobs. A lawsuit alleges that Jacobs frequently harassed one of the then-mayor’s police bodyguards while Garcetti ignored the abuse or laughed it off. Garcetti has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"I never witnessed, nor was it brought to my attention, the behavior that’s been alleged," he said at a Senate hearing in 2021. 'If it had been, I would have immediately taken action to stop that."
A number of Democrats voted against Garcetti's nomination, like Arizona's Mark Kelly, Ohio's Sherrod Brown and Hawaii's Mazie Hirono, but several Republicans, like Maine's Susan Collins, South Carolina's Lindsey Graham and Louisiana's Bill Cassidy, crossed party lines to put the former Los Angeles mayor over the top.
"I met with him personally. He clearly has an enormous amount of expertise about India," Collins said of Garcetti. "India’s been two years without an ambassador, and that is far too long, and I am going to support him."
"It’s a national security imperative to immediately have an ambassador in place in India," said Indiana Sen. Todd Young, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the 7 Republicans who backed Garcetti. "We can’t afford to wait any longer."
A number of key lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, were absent for the vote.
Despite the defections from some Democratic lawmakers, Garcetti expressed gratitude to them for their consideration in this process.
"I’m deeply grateful to President Biden and the White House for the confidence and support throughout this process, and to all Senators on both sides of the aisle – whether they voted for me or not – for their thoughtful consideration," Garcetti said in a statement. "I’m ready and eager to begin my service representing our critical interests in India."
Garcetti’s confirmation follows a contentious tenure at Los Angeles City Hall framed by the twin crises of homelessness and the pandemic, rising crime rates and sexual harassment and corruption scandals. The Los Angeles area, once known for boundless growth, has seen its population decline.
Garcetti took office in 2013 with a “back to basics” agenda that centered on fixing L.A.’s notoriously cratered streets and sidewalks. But those early ambitions faded as out-of-control homeless encampments transformed the city, then the government shuttered businesses, restaurants and schoolrooms — and shed hundreds of thousands of jobs — in the depths of the pandemic.
The former mayor has been credited with continuing a transit buildup in a city choked with traffic, and establishing tougher earthquake safety standards for thousands of buildings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.