[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 48 (Wednesday, March 26, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S1761]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NOMINATION OF JOSEPH WILLIAM WESTPHAL TO BE AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY 
 AND PLENIPOTENTIARY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE KINGDOM OF 
                              SAUDI ARABIA

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the clerk will 
report the Westphal nomination.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Joseph William Westphal, 
of New York, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 
United States of America to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there is now 2 
minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on the Westphal 
nomination.
  The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
recognized for perhaps more than 2 minutes or such time as I may 
consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask my colleagues to recognize they 
have an opportunity now to support someone who is most deserving for 
the position of Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. His name is 
Dr. Joseph William Westphal. While he is not an Oklahoma man, in his 
heart I think he is. He spent most of his time or much of his time in 
Oklahoma. He is a good personal friend of mine. He actually attended 
and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Then he came back and 
was head of the political science department at Oklahoma State 
University--kind of an unusual combination.
  Joe Westphal is one who has had a career in academia--and I don't 
really care that much about that, except for his two exposures in 
Oklahoma--but he also was the chancellor at the University of Maine, he 
taught public policy as the adjunct professor at Georgetown University, 
and he has been a Capitol Hill professional staff member for a long 
time. He actually was on the House Budget Committee for a long period 
of time. He was also a special assistant to our Senator Thad Cochran, 
although this has been some time ago.
  In the executive branch, Joe served as the Army assistant secretary, 
then the Acting Secretary of the Army--that was 2001--and then as the 
30th Under Secretary of the Army for the past 5 years.
  As I say, he is a good friend of mine. What is different about him 
is, there are a lot of people who have a career, have a background in 
academia, but then there are the ones who have shown they also have a 
heart--they have a reason for what they are doing and they have a love 
for using the position they hold to help other people, and that is what 
Joe Westphal has done for a long period of time.
  When Joe was Under Secretary--I think he was actually Acting 
Secretary of the Army--we were together in southern Oklahoma at Fort 
Sill. Fort Sill is outside of Lawton, OK, in the southwestern part of 
the State, and we had two schools down there, one called Geronimo and 
the other was Sheridan. Not Sheraton, like the hotel chain, but the 
Sheridan Indians, and we all know who Geronimo is. These were old 
schools. They are public schools, but the roofs leaked, and they had 
been around for a long period of time. The majority of the kids who 
went to school there are the sons and daughters of our military people. 
And because of his heart, for them, we went down together and we looked 
at this and saw something could be done to help these kids. So we put 
together--and he did through the Army--using it, perfectly 
legitimately, for the percentage of the population in the school who 
were actually the sons and daughters of military people, and we built a 
school that is now a model for schools and establishments that are in 
conjunction with large cities. It is something that now a lot of kids 
are very happy as they graduate from the Freedom Elementary School at 
Fort Sill, OK. Oklahoma has at this school 1,000 servicemember 
children. So we replaced the old one for them.
  I also remember when we had a request--and I am sure the Chair knows, 
because he has made requests of the bureaucracy before, and sometimes 
it takes longer than it would be otherwise, longer than it should 
take--because we had a need in my State of Oklahoma for a museum to 
have an old Huey helicopter that had been used in the military many 
years ago. We tried everything we could to get that done, and one phone 
call from this guy named Dr. Joseph William Westphal, and it was done.
  I probably shouldn't say this to my Democratic friends over here, but 
I have been such a good friend of his, I was afraid to express myself 
for fear President Obama might change his mind. But nonetheless he is 
now up for confirmation--I understand we are going to do that by voice 
vote--and I can't imagine anyone wouldn't take advantage of the 
opportunity to vote for Dr. Joseph Westphal to be U.S. Ambassador to 
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Brown). Is there further debate?
  If not, the question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the 
nomination of Joseph W. Westphal to be Ambassador Extraordinary and 
Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kingdom of Saudi 
Arabia?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table.
  The President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

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