[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.