Of americas and it is an honor to be here in the franklin room that was named after one of our Founding Fathers also International Diplomacy in the United States as the chairman of the council of Americas Society and of course, then eric will be before the subcommittee tomorrow so getting a good nights sleep rebuild really you hard. [laughter] i think this is an exciting time with regard to the western hemisphere it is an opportunity of policy outside of normal conventions. Certainly since the end of cold war something that needs to be reversed because in the end of our future and securities is deeply tied to our region because we talk about the western hemisphere. We are a part of that. You know, full well culturally and socially and politically. I want to take an opportunity to share with you gather my thoughts from the senate that i am troubled by for policy in general and to be tactically as well as strategic lead proven but we spend a lot of time payment talking about tactics over
Of americas and it is an honor to be here in the franklin room that was named after one of our Founding Fathers also International Diplomacy in the United States as the chairman of the council of Americas Society and of course, then eric will be before the subcommittee tomorrow so getting a good nights sleep rebuild really you hard. [laughter] i think this is an exciting time with regard to the western hemisphere it is an opportunity of policy outside of normal conventions. Certainly since the end of cold war something that needs to be reversed because in the end of our future and securities is deeply tied to our region because we talk about the western hemisphere. We are a part of that. You know, full well culturally and socially and politically. I want to take an opportunity to share with you gather my thoughts from the senate that i am troubled by for policy in general and to be tactically as well as strategic lead proven but we spend a lot of time payment talking about tactics over
I hope you get a good nights sleep. We are going to grill you hard. It is an honor to be part of this conference. Its an exciting time because it gives us an opportunity to rethink policy. In many ways outside of normal convention. Let me again by saying there has been consistency, lack of focus at some of the highest levels of our government in the hemisphere. Its something that needs to be reversed. In the end our future is deeply tied to our region. I say our region because we talk about something that is happening somewhere else. We are part of that. If you live where i do you know full well you are part of it culturally and politically. And so its an opportunity to be here with you today. I want to take an opportunity to gather over five or six years in the senate. Im troubled by u. S. Foreign policy that is tactically driven versus strategically driven. Military action or no military action. Diplomatic engagement. If they are not in furtherance of the strategy youre wasting a lot
Please feel free as you come to your turn to introduce your family and friends who are here with you. We thank them for their willingness to support you and the efforts that youre getting ready to undertake. Thank you for being here. Thank you so much mr. Chairman. I dont have my two teenagers here. Many of you knew them when they were little babies and i was walking the halls with them because they are both back in dallas. I have my neighbor from virginia. We do hope to get you to nato by the time School Enrollment starts. Okay thank you. It is so important that my son start school on time so i think both of you for acknowledging that. I also want to thank you, mr. Chairman and mr. Ranking member for your courtesy throughout this process, and your leadership and the way you work this committee. I appreciate it so much. I appreciate all the members of the committee and i know how much you spend in time and effort to make sure our foreign policy, i ow our ambassadors and state departmen
Foreign Relations Committee will come to order. We have a number of distinguished nominees here today and we welcome them. We also have a number of very distinguished introducers. We welcome you and thank you for coming to our committee. In order for you to be able to go ahead and do other Business Today we will defer relative to making Opening Statements and let you go ahead and do what you need to do. We look forward to those comments and we realize youll like to go elsewhere. I know senator mcconnel is coming today. Why dont we start in the order of seniority. We appreciate so much you being here. We welcome you all. Thank you for being here today. If you will, begin. Thank you mr. Chairman and Ranking Member of the committee. It is a pleasure to be back here. Sit the second time in less than a couple of weeks. Its not often i darken the door but as long as a president keeps nominating texans i promise to keep coming back often. She is truly someone that needs no introduction but i