[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 10, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1335-S1336]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     TRIBUTE TO EVELYN LIEBERMAN, KAREN HUGHES, AND JAMES GLASSMAN

  Mr. KAUFMAN. Madam President, this afternoon I will preside over a 
Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the future of U.S. public 
diplomacy. Never has public diplomacy been more important for promoting 
U.S. national security interests, especially in volatile regions and 
areas where we are engaged in counterinsurgency. In order to evaluate 
past achievements, successes, and challenges in public diplomacy, the 
committee invited three former Under Secretaries of State for Public 
Diplomacy to testify on the matter earlier today. Given their wide 
breadth of experience, they will share their views about lessons 
learned from their tenure and their recommendations on tools and future 
strategy.

  The three former Under Secretaries who are participating--Evelyn 
Lieberman, Karen Hughes, and James Glassman--promise to provide 
incredibly useful insight, and I am grateful they are able to be here 
for the hearing today. Not only are they important voices on public 
diplomacy, they have also been dedicated public servants in both the 
Clinton and Bush administrations.
  I wish to make a point here. They don't stay, as do the vast majority 
of the people we have talked about who have spent 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 
35 years in the government. These people come from a different group. 
They are the group who come for a short period of time and bring 
incredible expertise and intelligence to the issues we face--expertise 
and intelligence, by the way, that we in the Federal Government could 
never afford to pay for. These three are perfect examples of that, and 
that is one of the reasons I wish to recognize them today.
  During their years of service as Under Secretaries of State for 
Public Diplomacy, they oversaw our State Department's efforts to 
promote American foreign policies abroad using tools such as 
educational exchanges, public affairs and embassy outreach, 
international broadcasting, and the establishment of American corners 
or centers. They did this through communication with international 
audiences, cultural programming, academic grants, and international 
visitors programs. Public diplomacy programs such as the Fulbright 
Fellowship and Sports Envoy exchanges bring emerging leaders from 
foreign countries to visit the United States, promoting a cross-
cultural exchange and contributing to sharing an American perspective 
with the world.
  Although these three officials come from different sides of the 
aisle, they each hold unique perspectives on American public policy, 
and all share--and I can say from firsthand experience they all share a 
love of country and dedication to service that called them to 
government service. I was honored to work with each of them in various 
capacities over the years, especially during my tenure on the 
Broadcasting Board of Governors.
  Evelyn Lieberman is a native of New York and a graduate of State 
University of New York in Buffalo. She first entered government service 
in 1988 as press secretary to my predecessor, now Vice President Joe 
Biden. In those days I was serving as chief of staff, and I had the 
privilege to work with Evelyn early in her career. In 1993 Evelyn moved 
over to the White House where she served as Assistant to the First 
Lady, now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Three years later, 
after serving also as Deputy White House Press Secretary, she was 
appointed Deputy Chief of Staff under Leon Panetta.
  In 1997, President Clinton appointed her as director of Voice of 
America, and she served there for 2 years. During that time, I was a 
member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of 
America programming, and I was fortunate to work closely with Evelyn 
once more.
  In 1999, President Clinton nominated Evelyn to serve as the State 
Department's first Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy, and she was 
confirmed by the Senate. He could not have picked a better person. What 
happened back then was, we took the Information Agency and split it 
into two pieces. The Broadcasting Board of Governors created an 
independent entity for that, and then we brought the rest into the 
State Department, and Evelyn was the one who got that started and got 
it started on the right foot. She stayed there until the Bush 
administration.
  Since then, since 2002, Evelyn has continued a career in the Federal 
Government serving as the Director of Communications and Public Affairs 
for the Smithsonian Institution.
  The second witness today is Karen Hughes, who was appointed by 
President Bush to this position after serving as Counselor in the White 
House from 2000 to 2002. A Texas native, she holds a bachelor's degree 
from Southern Methodist University. Before embarking on a career in 
politics, Karen worked in broadcast journalism for 7 years.
  When she was appointed as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy in 
2005, Karen was given the rank of Ambassador to underscore the 
importance of public diplomacy as a central component of U.S. foreign 
policy. While she was there, Karen implemented important changes 
including the creation of a rapid response unit in her bureau at the 
Department of State and many others.
  Upon leaving State in 2007 to pursue work in the private sector, 
Karen told the BBC that her greatest achievement was ``transforming 
public diplomacy and making it a national security priority, central to 
everything we do in government,'' which is the goal I believe continues 
to this day.
  During her tenure as Under Secretary, she represented former 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in meetings with the Broadcasting 
Board of Governors, and I had the opportunity to work with her on 
promoting a free press overseas.
  I have worked with all three of these people. These are extraordinary 
public servants, Republicans and Democrats; people who have 
disagreements on many things but came to the government, took 
incredible financial sacrifice, and worked together to solve bipartisan 
problems that have put the public diplomacy effort in a positive light.
  When Karen Hughes left the State Department, President Bush nominated 
James Glassman to take her place. James is a Harvard graduate and a 
prominent writer and journalist, to say the least. He was confirmed by 
the Senate in June 2008 as Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy. Jim has 
done a whole lot of things. He has held senior roles at a number of 
leading news organizations, including the New Republic, the Atlantic 
Monthly, and U.S. News and World Report. He is also a former owner and 
editor of Roll Call.
  Before joining the Bush administration, Jim served as a fellow at the 
nonprofit American Enterprise Institute for 12 years. In 2007, Bush 
nominated him to be chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, 
and he served in that role until moving to the State Department several 
months later. As I said, I worked with Jim during my service on the 
board, and I saw firsthand his dedication to promoting American values 
and policies overseas.
  Since the Bush administration left office, Jim has been working in 
the nonprofit sector, and he was recently selected to lead a new public 
policy institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
  Think about this: Here I am, a Democrat, and I can tell my colleagues 
there aren't three better people with whom I have worked in the whole 
world than Evelyn Lieberman, Karen Hughes, and Jim Glassman. They care. 
We have a lot of fights about a lot of things, but when it came to 
public service, these three individuals all did incredible work.
  Political appointees make up an important constituency in our Federal 
Government. When a President requests their service, they often make 
real sacrifices to respond to that call, and I can tell you without a 
shadow of a doubt, these three made incredible

[[Page S1336]]

sacrifices, financial and personal, to answer the call of this country.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in thanking Evelyn Lieberman, Karen 
Hughes, and James Glassman for answering the call to serve and for 
their work on behalf of the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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