[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 59 (Monday, May 9, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S4641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF JOHN BOLTON

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today in support of the nomination 
of John Bolton, the President's nominee for U.S. representative to the 
United Nations with the rank of Ambassador.
  The President, together with his principal Cabinet officers, has put 
together an extraordinary national security team. John Bolton will be a 
valuable addition to this team.
  The President and his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, have 
expressed their confidence that John Bolton has the experience and 
skills to represent the United States at the United Nations and to 
carry out the President's priorities to strengthen and reform the U.N. 
I concur in the confidence they placed in the nominee.
  John Bolton has had a long and distinguished career in public service 
and in the private sector. Most recently, he has served for the past 4 
years as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and 
International Security Affairs. In that capacity, Secretary Bolton 
worked to build a coalition of over 60 countries to help combat the 
spread of weapons of mass destruction through the Proliferation 
Security Initiative, PSI. He was a leader in creating the G8 Global 
Partnership to, in effect, ``multilateralize'' the Nunn-Lugar nuclear 
threat reduction concept by inviting other nations to join the United 
States in helping to eliminate and safeguard dangerous weapons and 
technologies which remain in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
  Previously, John Bolton has served as Assistant Secretary of State 
for International Organization Affairs, as an Assistant Attorney 
General in the Department of Justice, and many years ago he held 
several senior positions in the Agency for International Development. 
He has also had a distinguished legal career in the private sector.
  Mr. Bolton has at times advocated or represented controversial 
positions which have sparked controversy. But he has done so with a 
frankness and assertiveness that demonstrate his strongly held beliefs. 
As this committee, and later the full Senate, considers this 
nomination, we should keep in mind the words of Secretary Rice: ``The 
President and I have asked John Bolton to do this work because he knows 
how to get things done. He is a tough-minded diplomat, he has a strong 
record of success and he has a proven track record of effective 
multilteralism . . . John, you have my confidence and that of the 
President.''
  Given the enormity of problems facing the U.N. today, we have an 
obligation to send a strong-minded individual to help constructively to 
solve these problems and to regain the confidence of the American 
people in the continuing need for the U.N.
  I share the President's and the Secretary's expectation that John 
Bolton will faithfully represent the United States' interests and 
enthusiastically advance the President's goal of making the United 
Nations a stronger, more effective international organization.

                          ____________________