Dilawar Syed lands spot at US State Department despite Republican resistance

Muslim-American businessman's nomination had been stalled by conservative senators for almost a year

Dilawar Syed is an entrepreneur and president of the software company Freshdesk who immigrated to the US from Pakistan as a university student. AP

The US State Department on Tuesday said it had appointed Muslim-American businessman Dilawar Syed to oversee international commercial and business affairs.

Senate Republicans had stalled his nomination for deputy small business administrator for nearly a year.

The State Department said Mr Syed would “draw on his experience working at the federal and state levels to advance commercial and economic policies that benefit American workers and businesses".

As the State Department position does not require Senate confirmation, Mr Syed’s position indicates that Democrats have abandoned efforts to install him as the Small Business Administration’s deputy.

The Joe Biden administration made the announcement on the same day that the Senate small business committee held an uninterrupted meeting for the first time since last year.

Republicans on the committee refused to attend five business meetings last year to keep Democrats from advancing Mr Syed’s nomination to the Senate floor.

Their absence denied the committee a quorum, the minimum number of members needed to conduct committee business under Senate rules.

Initially, Republicans objected to Mr Syed’s nomination on the grounds that he served as a board member of Emgage Action, a Muslim-American advocacy group that is critical of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

James Risch, the top Republican on the foreign relations committee, led the initial opposition to Mr Syed in a letter last June co-signed by seven other Republicans and addressed to Ben Cardin, the Democratic chairman of the small business committee.

The letter accused Emgage Action of supporting the pro-Palestinian boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.

But in his written answers to the committee as part of his confirmation process, Mr Syed said he did not personally support the movement and highlighted his previous work with Israeli businesses.

Even the pro-Israel American Jewish Committee took the unusual step of defending Mr Syed, calling the accusations against him “base and un-American” with “no factual grounding".

The organisation noted his previous work with the San Francisco Jewish community and his travel to Israel with the Jewish Community Relations Council.

Mr Syed is a Pakistani-American tech entrepreneur who led small business engagement as the administration of former president Barack Obama distributed funds from the 2009 economic stimulus package.

After Republicans boycotted the first two committee meetings in June, Mr Cardin – a staunchly pro-Israel Democrat – tried to convene three more meetings to advance Mr Syed’s nomination.

At that point, Republicans changed their official reason for taking such unusual measures to stall an individual nominee, which they said had nothing to do with Mr Syed.

Rand Paul, the top Republican on the committee, said that his party would continue denying the committee a quorum to confirm any nominee for the position unless the Biden administration rescinded loans distributed to businesses affiliated with Planned Parenthood as part of the 2020 coronavirus relief package.

Notably, those loans were distributed under former president Donald Trump – a Republican.

With Mr Syed’s nomination off the agenda, Republicans provided the small business committee with enough members to provide a quorum and conduct business for the first time in several months.

It allowed Mr Cardin to advance several pieces of legislation, but at no point did he mention Mr Syed’s nomination, which seems stuck in procedural Senate limbo.