Daily Archives: November 11, 2015

Happy 240th Birthday @USMC!

November 11, 2015 By in Americans Abroad, Defense Department, Holidays and Celebrations, Social Media Tags: , , , , 1 Comment

Posted: 2:23 am EDT
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SFRC Clears Roberta Jacobson’s Nomination as US Ambassador to Mexico, Roadblocks Remain

November 11, 2015 By in Nominations, Obama, Senate Hold, Senators, SFRC, Staffing the FS, U.S. Missions, WHA|Western Hemisphere Tags: , , , , ,

Posted: 1:35 am EDT
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According to the Dallas Morning News, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-7 to advance the nomination of Roberta Jacobson to be the next U.S. ambassador to Mexico on Tuesday:

The vote was 12-7 in favor of Jacobson and drew support from Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and all but one of the panel’s Democrats. Also voting in favor were Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Cory Gardner or Colorado and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. and a former chairman of the committee, voted no. So did Rep. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a 2016 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Her nomination will now go to the full Senate for a vote, but there is no guarantee if/when that vote will happen.  Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas told Dallas Morning News that “The most significant obstacle to her nomination is time,” he said, noting the “procedural hoops that will have to be navigated in the absence of some sort of [unanimous] agreement.”

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Senate Confirms Allen, Furuta-Toy, Hankins, Thomas, Jackson, and 632 Career FS Members

November 11, 2015 By in Ambassadors, Confirmations, Foreign Service, FSOs, Realities of the FS, Senate Hold, Senators, Staffing the FS, State Department, U.S. Missions Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted: 1:20 am EDT
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The U.S. Senate confirmed the following nominations for ambassadors the last couple of weeks:

2015-11-09 PN569 European Bank for Reconstruction and Development | Scott Allen, of Maryland, to be United States Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

2015-10-22 PN581 Department of State | Julie Furuta-Toy, of Wyoming, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

2015-10-22 PN631 Department of State | Dennis B. Hankins, of Minnesota, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Guinea.

2015-10-22 PN715 Department of State | Harry K. Thomas, Jr., of New York, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Zimbabwe.

2015-10-22 PN745 Department of State | Robert Porter Jackson, of Virginia, a Career Member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Ghana.

The U.S. Senate also confirmed the following 632 nominations of career members of the Foreign Service by unanimous consent:

PN643 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (101) beginning Jennifer Ann Amos, and ending Holly Rothe Wielkoszewski.

PN800 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (127) beginning Kreshnik Alikaj, and ending Brett David Ziskie.

PN877 – 1 FOREIGN SERVICE nominations (404) beginning Jason Douglas Kalbfleisch, and ending Stuart MacKenzie Hatcher.

One list remains pending on the Executive Calendar, courtesy of Senator Grassley:

PN573-4 – Nominations beginning Bradley Duane Arsenault, and ending Jamshed Zuberi, which 20 nominations were received by the Senate and appeared in the Congressional Record on June 10, 2015.

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