Business meeting will come to order. Do just a little bit of business on the front end and hopefully take care of some business quickly. Now people have other meetings and then move to the hearing itself. We thank our witnesses for allowing us to do this, and were glad youre here. We have a number of items on the agenda today. Well move a number of nominations and Foreign Service officer lists. We will also take up s1928. The multilateral if a review act of 2017. Want to thank senator koonce force his leadership and hard work and recognize senators isakson, rubio, young, cane, and merkley for their contributions to this important Bipartisan Legislation before our committee. This bill would establish a process for conducting objective reviews on how well multilateral institutions carry out their missions with our funding. The authorities sunset after four review periods and 11 years. Through this process well be able to evaluate their performance in an objective way. The review will loo
The middle east. First of all and foremost, i want to submit for the record the statement by chairman mccain who is not here today. Were joined this morning by a group we all know well. You have all been before this committee. As i mentioned to you a minute ago, and i think most of the members of this committee have seen you in action in the field, and ambassador crocker, you have been a diplomat in residence, woodrow wilson, school of public and International Affairs at princeton university. He has been all over the map, and in the last couple of decades. Ambassador eric edelman, counsellors center for strategic and budgetary assessment. By my account this is your ninth appearance before this committee. Does it sound right to you . Yeah. And ambassador jeffrey, the philip solange distinguished fellow, University Washington institute for near east policy. I remember being with you in turkey and other places, and, of course, ambassador stuart jones, Vice President of the colin group. Yo
The statement by mccain joined s morning by a group that we all know well youve all been before this committee is i mention to the you a minute ago and i think most of the members of meet have seen in action in the field and investor crocker youve been diplomat in residence Wilson School and at Princeton University been all over the map. And in the last couple of decades, and a investor harry counselor, senator for strategic and budgetary assessment l by my account that is your 9th appearance before this committee does what sound right to you . Yeah. Investor at the university of Washington Institute for the policy i remember being with you in tucky, and other places and a, of course, ambassador Stewart Jones Vice President of the cohen group who your presence visited by i think every member here by both jordan and in iraq so it is great to have all of you here. Much of our nation attention has gone towards middle east in materials of military operations and thats appropriately so. Wev
Newsmakers is next with democratic senator Chris Van Hollen of maryland. After that, well show you the swearing in of senators doug jones and tina smith this past week. Followed by Senate Leaders Mitch Mcconnell and Charles Schumer discussing the congressional agenda. You guys have narrowed the advantage in the senate this week. It looks like there are some ther interesting senate races, some retirements. Ere less than a year from the midterms. Will the democrats win the majority back in the senate this november . This was a great week for the for alabama and for the country with the swearingin of jones who ran a Campaign Based on Kitchen Table issues so not going to make any predictions about what will 2018. N in november, what i can say is all the signs you have a very nergized Democratic Base plus lots of independent voters who are crossing over to support democrats as they did with doug of disaffected republicans and i believe that the republicans in congress have taken are actuall
Southern california Annenberg Center for communication leadership and policy. Im also president of the Public Diplomacy council. Those are two of the partners in these events. The third partner is the Public Policy alumni association. Im pleased to have the president of that organization here to also welcome you. Its my pleasure to welcome all of you. If i could take a moment to just highlight three events that many f you will be interested in. The office of the historian of the department of state is putting out the volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States, the documents for Public Diplomacy from 1961 to 1963. Which is the kennedy period when back to. S date they are going to be releasing it, 20 at the door. You do have to sign up in advance. I think it will be a very interesting exploration of the histry of Public Diplomacy. Secondly, one of the things pdaa does is provides awards for the diplomacy t public work that department of state, public dimcy officers are doing. W