Daily Archives: April 22, 2021

SFRC Clears Victoria Nuland For State/P, Uzra Zeya For State/J

April 22, 2021 By in Nominations, SFRC, State Department, U.S. Senate Tags: , , , , , ,
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PN120 — 117th Congress (2021-2022) — Victoria Nuland — Department of State
Victoria Nuland, of Virginia, to be an Under Secretary of State (Political Affairs), vice David Hale.
Date Received from President: 02/13/2021
Committee: Foreign Relations
Latest Action: 04/21/2021 – Placed on Senate Executive Calendar.
Calendar No. 66. (All Actions)
 PN241 — 117th Congress (2021-2022) — Uzra Zeya— Department of State
Uzra Zeya, of Virginia, to be an Under Secretary of State (Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights), vice Sarah Sewall, resigned.
Date Received from President: 03/09/2021
Committee: Foreign Relations
Latest Action: 04/21/2021 – Placed on Senate Executive Calendar.
Calendar No. 67. (All Actions)

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Amb. Rena Bitter to be Asst Secretary of State for Consular Affairs

April 22, 2021 By in assistant secretaries, Biden, Consular Work, FSOs, Nominations, Officially In, State Department Tags: , , ,
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On April 21, President Biden announced his intent to nominate SFSO and former Ambassador Rena Bitter to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. The WH released the following brief bio:
Rena Bitter, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State, Consular Affairs, Department of State
Rena Bitter, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of Minister-Counselor, is Dean of the Leadership and Management School at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.  Previously, she was the U.S. Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and chief of the consular section in Amman, Jordan.  She also served in London, Bogota, and Mexico City.  In Washington, she was Director of the State Department’s Operations Center, and a Special Assistant to the Secretary of State.  Bitter has a Bachelor’s Degree from Northwestern University, and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University.  She is a recipient of American Citizens Abroad’s Thomas Jefferson Award for outstanding service to the American community abroad.  She speaks Spanish, Arabic and Vietnamese.

CG Rena Bitter with Ambassador Ted Osius | Via FB (2016)

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (Jun 27, 1952; P.L. 82-414; 66 Stat. 174) established within the Department of State a Bureau of Security and Consular Affairs, headed by an Administrator designated by the Secretary of State with rank equal to that of an Assistant Secretary. In 1962, this position became a Presidential appointee subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. In 1977, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1978 changed the Administrator’s title to “Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs.”
All appointees to the Consular Affairs bureau from 1953 to 1980 were non-career appointees. This trend was interrupted by the appointments of career FSOs Diego Asencio in 1980, and again in 1983 with  Joan Clark. Political appointees assumed charged of the bureau in 1989 when Elizabeth Tamposi was appointed, and more recently in 2017 with Carl Risch’s appointment. If confirmed Ambassador Bitter would only be the seventh career FSO to lead the most public facing bureau of the State Department.

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Amb. Todd Robinson to be Asst Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs

April 22, 2021 By in Ambassadors, Biden, FSOs, Functional Bureaus, Nominations, Officially In, State Department Tags: , ,

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On April 12, President Biden announced his intent to nominate former Ambassador Todd Robinson to be the next Assistant Secretary of State for INL. The WH released the following brief bio:
Todd Robinson, Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Department of State
Todd Robinson, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister, currently serves as Director of the International Student Management Office, National Defense University.  He was a Senior Advisor for Central America in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs in Washington. D.C.  Robinson also served as Chargé d’Affaires a.i. in Caracas, Venezuela.  Previously, Robinson was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Guatemala from 2014 to 2017.  Prior to that, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.  Robinson also served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala; as Consul General and Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate in Barcelona, Spain; and as Chief of the Political and Economic Section in the U.S. Embassy in Tirana, Albania.  Other overseas postings include the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Vatican City, Italy, El Salvador, and Colombia.  Earlier in his career, Robinson served in the Department’s Operations Center and as a Special Assistant to former Secretary of State Albright.  He is the recipient of a Presidential Rank Award.  A native of New Jersey, he is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and speaks Spanish, Italian, and Albanian.
According to history.state.gov,  Congress, in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal Year 1979 (P.L. 95-426; 92 Stat. 969), authorized the position of Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, to be responsible for the overall coordination of the role of the Department of State in the international aspects of narcotics problems in 1978.  The Department of State first supported the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Narcotics in 1909. The title of this position was changed from International Narcotics Matters to International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Feb 10, 1995.
If confirmed, Ambassador Robinson would succeed Kirsten Madison who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2018. Previous career appointees to this position include Anne Woods Patterson (2005–2007); David Timothy Johnson (2007–2011); and William R. Brownfield (2011–2017).

 

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Snapshot: Visas Issued at Foreign Service Posts (FY 2016-2020)

April 22, 2021 By in Consular Work, Functional Bureaus, Realities of the FS, Snapshots, State Department, Visas Tags: , , , , ,
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Via state.gov

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