Senate panel deadlocks on archivist nominee in party-line vote

By Clare Foran and Ted Barrett, CNN

President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the National Archives, who came under GOP scrutiny after the FBI’s search for government records at former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, deadlocked in a party-line committee vote Wednesday.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee voted 7-7 on the nomination of Colleen J. Shogan to be Archivist of the United States for the National Archives and Records Administration. That means it was not able to be favorably reported. A committee aide confirmed to CNN it was a party-line vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will still be able to discharge the nomination from the committee, however, so Shogan should still be able to be confirmed on the Senate floor regardless of the committee vote. Committee chairman — Democratic Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan — said after the vote, “While I’m disappointed this nomination will not advance today, I’ll work with the Majority Leader to have Dr. Shogan’s nomination discharged from the committee for consideration to the full Senate.”

The National Archives has been in the political spotlight and has come under scrutiny from Republicans in the wake of the FBI search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort as part of an investigation into the handling of presidential documents, including classified documents. The Archives asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records earlier this year.

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CNN’s Evan Perez contributed to this report.