[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 193 (Wednesday, December 6, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18056-S18057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      FLAG DESECRATION CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT--MOTION TO PROCEED

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the motion to proceed.
  Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I wanted to just add some information 
for my colleagues about some of the ambassadors that I have been 
discussing this morning and so far today about the qualifications of 
these people. These are individuals that have been nominated by the 
President. There are 18 of them that are presently pending in the 
Foreign Relations Committee. They are an outstanding group of nominees.
  I was just provided with more detailed information about what they 
have been doing in their careers and why they are considered by the 
President to be qualified for these important positions. So I thought I 
would go through some of that information so that any Senator who has a 
doubt about the qualifications of any nominee would hopefully have that 
doubt put to rest. I do not know many of these people myself, but I 
would like to at least put in the Record the information about them.
  Mr. President, going down the list, the President's nominee to Sri 
Lanka is Mr. Peter Burleigh, who is presently the Deputy Assistant 
Secretary of State for Personnel. He is a career appointee in the 
Department of State. He has been with the Department of State now for 
some substantial period of time. He was a Peace Corps volunteer before 
that. He has a very distinguished resume which we will include in the 
Record.
  The second of these nominees is the President's nominee for APEC, 
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This person, Sandra Kristoff, is now 
the coordinator in that position, and she is being nominated by the 
President for the rank of Ambassador in that same position--again, a 
very distinguished career of involvement in foreign policy and trade 
related issues.
  The third on this list is John Malott, who has been nominated by the 
President as the Ambassador to Malaysia. 

[[Page S 18057]]
 He is presently the senior adviser to the Under Secretary of State for 
Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs. He is a career member of 
the Senior Foreign Service at the class of minister-counsellor, clearly 
a very distinguished and recognized public servant in our diplomatic 
corps.
  Next is Mr. Kenneth Quinn, Kenneth Michael Quinn, who has been 
nominated by the President to the position of Ambassador to Cambodia. 
He is presently a special project officer for the Bureau of East Asian 
and Pacific Affairs in the Department of State--again, a career of 
foreign service, class of minister-counsellor.
  I would just point out parenthetically here, Mr. President, that I 
can remember years in which we had great debates on the Senate floor 
expressing concerns about the political nature of the appointments 
being made by one or another President to some ambassadorial positions. 
In this group of 18, all but 4 of the 18 are career Foreign Service 
officers, have devoted their entire career to working in our diplomatic 
corps, and the four who are not career Foreign Service officers I think 
are recognized by all to be well qualified to take important positions 
like this.
  After the Ambassador to Cambodia is Mr. William Itoh, the President's 
appointee as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand, presently a student 
in the Capstone Program at the National Defense University--again, a 
career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the class of 
counsellor.
  Next is a gentleman I referred to in my statement this morning, Mr. 
Stapleton Roy, who has been nominated by the President as Ambassador to 
the Republic of Indonesia. He again is a career member of the Senior 
Foreign Service, class of career minister. I would point out that he 
was born in China. He has spent much of his life in the Far East and 
China in particular. He is extremely well recognized as an expert on 
that part of the world and has served our country extremely well in 
important positions including Ambassador to China. He now, of course, 
is being considered for this other very important position for which I 
hope we can confirm him.

  The next after Mr. Roy is Thomas Simons, Jr., who is nominated by the 
President as the Ambassador to Pakistan. He is presently the 
Coordinator of U.S. Assistance for the New Independent States. His 
Foreign Service grade is career member of the Senior Foreign Service, a 
career diplomat, as many of these nominees are, and somebody who 
clearly has earned the respect and confidence of the President.
  Next is Frances Cook, who has been nominated by the President to be 
the Ambassador to Oman, presently the Deputy Assistant Secretary of 
State for Political Military Affairs--again, a career member of the 
Senior Foreign Service.
  Next is Richard Henry Jones, who has been nominated by the President 
as Ambassador to Lebanon. And again we have a person who at the present 
time serves as Director of the Office of Egyptian Affairs in the 
Department of State, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with 
a class of counsellor.
  Next is James Collins. Mr. Collins has been nominated by the 
President as Ambassador-at-Large and Special Adviser to the Secretary 
of State for the New Independent States, and again a career member of 
the Senior Foreign Service with the class of minister-counsellor, also 
a very distinguished career which I think well equips him for that 
position.
  Next is Charles Twining, who has been nominated by the President as 
Ambassador to the Republic of Cameroon, presently the Ambassador to 
Cambodia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the class 
of minister-counsellor--again, a very distinguished public servant in 
our diplomatic corps.
  Next is James Joseph. The President has nominated James Joseph as 
Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa. He presently is the 
president of the Council on Foundations and has a very distinguished 
career in a great many different areas, but obviously has the 
President's confidence.
  Next is Joan Plaisted. Joan Plaisted is the President's nominee as 
Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, now presently 
serving as Director of the Office of Thailand and Burma Affairs in the 
Department of State, another career member in the Senior Foreign 
Service with the class of counsellor.
  Next is Don Gevirtz, who has been nominated as Ambassador to the 
Republic of Fiji, to the Republic of Nauru, to the Kingdom of Tonga and 
Tuvalu--again, a very distinguished individual whose present position 
is chairman of the board and chief executive officer the Foothill 
Group, Inc., in California.
  Next is our own former colleague, Senator Jim Sasser, who is 
presently an attorney here in the District of Columbia as well as in 
Nashville, TN, earlier this year was a fellow of Harvard University and 
is now, of course, the President's nominee as Ambassador to Beijing. 
And I think all of us who have served with him would agree that he will 
perform in an exemplary fashion in that position as he would in any 
position for which the President would nominate him.
  Next is David Rawson, whom the President has nominated as Ambassador 
to the Republic of Mali, presently the Ambassador to the Republic of 
Rwanda, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of 
counselor; again, a very distinguished career in our diplomatic 
service.
  Next is Robert Gribbon, who has been nominated by the President as 
Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda. His present position is 
Ambassador to the Central African Republic, another career member of 
the Senior Foreign Service, with the class of counselor; a very 
distinguished career, formerly a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya.
  Finally, Gerald Wesley Scott, who has been nominated by the President 
as the Ambassador to the Republic of the Gambia. He is presently the 
Deputy Chief of Mission in Zaire and in the American Embassy in 
Kinshasa, Zaire, another career member of the Senior Foreign Service 
with the class of counselor.
  Mr. President, I have gone through this list and given a little 
information about each of these individuals just to make the point that 
this is not some kind of political effort on my part or on the 
President's part or anybody to get these people in these new positions.
  These people have devoted their careers, their entire professional 
lives, to serving this country in often very difficult circumstances. 
They have been chosen by the President to serve in these important 
positions, and we owe it to them as well as to those people we 
represent in our home States to get on with approving their nominations 
so that they can continue to represent this country in those important 
positions.
  That is the list of ambassadors that are presently being held up in 
the Foreign Relations Committee. I hope very much that we will be able 
to get an agreement here today, or very soon, to have all of those 
nominees reported to the Senate floor and have a vote on those nominees 
as well as on START II before we adjourn this session of the Congress. 
I think that would be a very major accomplishment and something that 
would allow us to feel we had done our duty under the Constitution, 
which I think is certainly what all of us are intending to do. So with 
that, Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The absence of a quorum has been suggested. 
The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THOMAS. I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THOMAS. Thank you, Mr. President.

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