Ex-Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Panel Urged to Quit Senate

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called on Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., on July 16 to resign after the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was found guilty in a federal corruption trial. It was not immediately clear whether Menendez would accept Schumer's recommendation. Menendez stepped down as chairman in September 2023 after he was indicted (see 2309280005). He remains a member of the committee, where he has been a vocal critic in recent years of a Trump-era rule that transferred the export control jurisdiction of certain weapons from the State Department to the Commerce Department (see 2110050029, 2109210058 and 2001170030), among other export control and sanctions issues.