[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Vote on Smith Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2 
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form prior to a vote on 
the Smith nomination.
  The Senator from California
  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I rise to support the nomination of 
Ambassador Daniel Bennett Smith to be the Assistant Secretary of State 
for Intelligence and Research.
  I am not aware of any opposition to this nominee and so look forward 
to a strong vote of confirmation by my colleagues. I am also pleased 
that the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, known 
as INR, will continue to have strong leadership by a respected senior 
member of the foreign service.
  The INR Bureau is a small, but effective entity within the U.S. 
intelligence community. In fact, it only has approximately 200 
analysts, but it has a very strong reputation for independent and 
unbiased analysis. Its intelligence professionals include those from 
the foreign service and the civil service, including many who have 
decades of experience in the topics they cover.
  These analysts are prized for the intelligence value they provide to 
senior State Department officials, to include the Secretary and his 
team, ambassadors, and the men and women who work the country desks.
  INR also brings the State Department's knowledge and viewpoint to 
discussions and debates within the intelligence community, helping to 
ensure that intelligence decisions are informed by diplomatic 
requirements and information gained by our embassies around the world.
  In the past several years, INR has perhaps become best known for its 
dissents from some of the main points in the flawed intelligence 
reports that led to the war in Iraq. Unfortunately, those dissents were 
marginalized in key intelligence products and not provided adequate 
scrutiny. As a result, I can tell my colleagues that members of the 
intelligence committee pay special attention to dissenting voices in 
the intelligence community, and always to the views of INR.
  The primary mission of this Bureau is to provide intelligence to 
policymakers at the State Department. INR is one of the three all-
source analytic agencies within the intelligence community, along with 
the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency.
  INR also ensures that intelligence operations and sensitive 
intelligence-related law enforcement activities are consistent with 
U.S. foreign policy. The Assistant Secretary for INR is therefore the 
conduit between the intelligence community and the State Department to 
ensure that our intelligence activities and the conduct of our foreign 
policy are coordinated and aligned.
  In sum, the Assistant Secretary for INR is both an independent leader 
of an intelligence community agency and the Secretary of State's point 
person on intelligence matters.
  Ambassador Smith is well-qualified to be the Assistant Secretary of 
State for Intelligence and Research. He has served for 30 years as a 
Foreign Service officer and in a variety of positions at the State 
Department. Most recently he was Ambassador to Greece (from 2010 to 
2013).
  Ambassador Smith has also served as Executive Secretary of the State 
Department, Principal Deputy Secretary for Consular Affairs, and in 
overseas posts in Bern, Istanbul, Ottawa, and Stockholm. He is a career 
officer in the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Career Minister.
  The Intelligence Committee approved Ambassador Smith by voice vote on 
January 16, with unanimous support. A month earlier, on December 17, 
2013, the committee held an open hearing on his nomination. After 
Ambassador Smith was voted out of our committee, the Foreign Relations 
Committee held a hearing on his nomination on January 28.
  Ambassador Smith has had a long and distinguished career at the State 
Department that will serve him well in this position. I urge my 
colleagues to support the nomination of Ambassador Daniel Bennett Smith 
to be Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  Mr. COATS. We yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is, Shall the Senate advise and consent to the 
nomination of Daniel Bennett Smith, of Virginia, to be an Assistant 
Secretary of State (Intelligence and Research)?
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. 
Rockefeller) is necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 98, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 31 Ex.]

                                YEAS--98

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Walsh
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Coburn
     Rockefeller
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. The next vote will be the last in this series of votes. The 
next one we will do by voice vote, and then we will start a series of 
votes at 1:45. There could be as many as 11 votes, so everybody cinch 
up their vests, and we will see what happens.