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President Joe Biden picks former US senator for New Zealand ambassador
President Joe Biden is nominating former New Mexico Senator Tom Udall to serve as his ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
Mr Udall, a Democrat, retired in 2021 after two terms in the Senate representing New Mexico. He spent five terms in the House and served as New Mexico s attorney general.
He comes from a family well known for public service: his father Stewart Udall served as Interior Secretary under John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson, his uncle Mo Udall was a congressman from Colorado and his cousin Mark Udall was a senator from Colorado.
Biden Lifts Emergency on U.S.-Mexico Border, Stops Wall
WASHINGTON, DC, February 11, 2021 (ENS) – A national emergency no longer exists at the U.S. southern border with Mexico; it has been terminated after nearly two years. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation that ends the national emergency first declared by former President Donald Trump on February 15, 2019, and twice renewed.
“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted,” President Biden wrote in a letter to Congressional leaders, explaining his move.
The Biden Administration’s policy is “that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end,” he wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat representing California, a state on the southern border.