Good morning. This hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will come to order. I am grateful for our continued partnership, senator. I would also like to thank the senior senator from indiana, senator donnelly, as well as senator peters of michigan. The purpose of todays hearing is to review the nominations of five individuals for key positions. They include the following, David Fischer nominated to serve as ambassador to morocco. The honorable earl miller, a career member of the senior su. J eign service , Service Ambassador to the peoples republic of bangladesh. Mister daniel rosenblum, to be the them back in to be the ambassador to uzbekistan. Mister kip tom to be the ambassador and representative to the United Nations agencies for food and agriculture. Donald yamamoto to be ambassador to the federal republic of somalia. I want to welcome each of you and thank you for being here today. Most importantly, i want to thank you for your willingness to serve our country. I want to extend a special welcome to mister tom. I wrote a letter to the president last year, recommending that he nominate mister tom to this position. As i said in that letter, he has more than four decades of domestic and International Experience related to food and agriculture and is uniquelybvom qualified. I am glad you are appearing before the committee today. I am also grateful that you have invited so many members of your family. I cant recall having so many family members attend these hearings. I think if you all shared with me, we would have a lot more, if it wont harvest season. Just raise your hands, that is a lot of hoosiers. Thank you for being here. During his may 24 appearance before this committee, secretary pompeo said, quote, with so many challenges before us, the state Department Needs a full team on the field, from locally employed staff around the world, to Senior Leaders in washington. Secretary pompeo expressed concern about vacancies in key positions and said, we need our men and women on the ground, executing diplomacy with great vigor and representing our great nation. I agree and that is why i am excited to have five nominees before the committee today. I am hopeful the committee and full senate will process their nominations as expeditiously as possible. With that, i would like to recognize the senator with his opening comments and also indicate that our other senators do have time commitments. I know senator connolly has another meeting and will need to be out of here roughly after 10 minutes past the hour, to make that. Thank you. Im grateful to have this hearing and process of so many individuals in key positions. Thank you to mister fisher, ambassador miller, mister rosenblum, for being here today and for being willing to serve in critical posts to our nation, around the world. I have seen the work you perform in agricultural sectors during my delegations abroad. I am glad to see and glad to see nominees for these crucial positions. I am glad to see years of experience. Ambassador miller, saturday will be the one Year Anniversary of the start of a Brutal Campaign of ethnic cleansing conducted by the Burmese Military against rohingya, which is relevant to your position, because 700,000 refugees have fled to neighboring bangladesh. I look forward to hearing from you, how the United States can address this challenging situation. I also praise donald yamamotos nomination going forward. I know the challenges you will face in leading this mission. Part of the world facing substantial challenges. It is exciting to have someone there who is also a dual citizen with the United States. I think, certainly, working to bring some real policy efforts to bear on those challenges. I hope you will be given then necessary resources to do your work. When i visited the representatives of the United States said we are the only ones who cant leave to do our work. We need to get off the compound. It was an issue i raised with secretary pompeo. I want to make sure our team is able to do the work. You will, if confirmed, lead a mission in uzbekistan. It is an Important Role in resolving conflict, including hosting some of the conversations with the caliban. I look forward to hearing from David Fischer. Morocco is a fascinating state. I will give you an opportunity to address a couple of the issues that were raised that they wanted you to clarify. Thank you all. Senator donnelly, i welcome you to make whatever comments you would like to make. Thank you. I want to thank all of our witnesses for their service to the country. I am here to introduce and and proud to introduce my fellow hoosier, kip tom, who is nominated to serve as americas ambassador to the United Nations World Food Program and food and agriculture nomination. I would like to take a moment to recognize some of the people who are here supporting him today. There are a lot of them. His parents of travel to be here today. He is also joined by his wife, marcia, his sister melinda, his children, kathy and kyle. His daughterinlaw angie. His grandchildren, as well as other family members and friends. I am sure they are all proud of your accomplishments. As a native hoosier, he is a seventh generation farmer and has been active in agricultural business for over 40 years. He is the chairman of toms farms, which is one of the largest corn, soybean and seed growers in the state. It includes work in north america, south america, europe, the middle east and asia. He serves on the board of the Indiana Economic Development corporation. The Indiana Chamber of commerce, the future farmers of America Foundation and the national 4h foundation. His leadership in the field has also been recognized by the agricultural future of america, which awarded him the ag leader of the world award. I believe he is highly qualified and will be committed to achieving the goals of the United Nations World Food Program and help as they strive to defeat hunger and achieve Food Security worldwide. I look forward to hearing his testimony and your questions. As i said, we are very proud of mister tom and i support his nomination. Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you, senator donnelly. With that, senator peters i welcome you to make any comments. Thank you, the other senators who are here. Each of the folks who are nominated, and your willingness to serve if confirmed is very much appreciated. I appreciate the opportunity to introduce David Fischer, nominated to serve as the ambassador to morocco