[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 73 (Wednesday, April 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2267-S2268]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Nomination of Samantha Power

  Mr. President, I would like to speak on behalf of the nominee of the 
Biden administration to become the Administrator for the U.S. Agency 
for International Development or USAID.
  He has a great nominee, Samantha Power, for this job. As noted in a 
New Yorker profile of her, Samantha's last name, Power, comes from the 
Irish ``de Paor'' meaning ``of the poor.'' Fittingly, she has dedicated 
her entire life in service of others, using her razor-sharp 
intelligence and fierce advocacy as a journalist, activist, and 
diplomat to stand with the world's voiceless masses, all while 
simultaneously advancing U.S. interests by building bonds in every 
corner of the world.

[[Page S2268]]

  Ambassador Power has been known to be ferocious in the pursuit of 
justice, human rights, and democracy, always taking time to listen to 
other points of view with great humility.
  While she disagrees with Henry Kissinger on everything from politics 
to the no-brainer debate of the Red Sox versus the Yankees, Henry 
Kissinger said that Samantha ``has an excellent analytical mind, and 
even on matters where I might have come to different conclusions, I 
respected her analysis''--perhaps the highest praise ever given by a 
Yankees fan to a member of Red Sox Nation, of which she is proudly a 
member.
  As an immigrant from Ireland, Samantha's personal background gives 
her a unique and deep respect for this country and all that it stands 
for. Spending time between Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dublin, and Boston, she 
received her bachelor's degree at Yale University and went on to obtain 
her law degree at Harvard University. She served in several key 
positions during the Obama administration, including as the Special 
Assistant to the President, the National Security Council Senior 
Director for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights, and, notably, as 
the youngest ever U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
  Prior to entering government service, she began her career as a war 
correspondent, reporting from the siege of Sarajevo, became a Pulitzer 
Prize-winning author, and served as the founding executive director of 
the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University.
  As she takes on the important work of leading USAID, the challenges 
Samantha Power will face are daunting: recovering from a global 
pandemic, revamping the state of global democracy, tackling the climate 
crisis, and extending lifesaving assistance to the nearly 1 billion 
people around the world who go to bed hungry every single night. I know 
of no person more qualified to take on this task. She embodies that 
bold red, white, and blue USAID logo, which states ``From the American 
People.''
  In 2015, Samantha Power invited me to be her guest to attend His 
Holiness Pope Francis's address before the United Nations General 
Assembly. For two Irish Catholics from Massachusetts, it was the 
experience of a lifetime. On that day, Pope Francis spoke of the need 
for compassion, inclusivity, and action to tackle the world's shared 
challenges. Samantha's career personifies each of these qualities, and 
I know she will take her compassion, inclusivity, and unwavering desire 
for action and achieve great things for the people of the United States 
and for the world at USAID.
  There is no one better qualified, ever, to serve as the head of this 
Agency, and I would, with the greatest of enthusiasm, recommend an 
``aye'' vote from every Member of the Senate on her confirmation as our 
Administrator of this great group who serves in every country around 
the world.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana