[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7450-7451]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF JOHN NEGROPONTE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about my good 
friend, John Negroponte. I have known him and Diana and their 
children--Marina, Alejandra, John, George, and Sophia--for quite some 
time. I think the Nation is very lucky to have a man of the caliber of 
John Negroponte on deck, so to speak, and willing to take the 
assignment of being the new Director of National Intelligence. He has 
had considerable experience as an ambassador.
  I remember full well the first time I met him was in Honduras when he 
was the Ambassador there. We had a rather severe problem, as people 
will recall; we called them the Contras. But I got to know him fairly 
well in the time we were down there. When he returned to Washington, I 
met his wife and was with him and spent time with him on a family 
basis. I have spent time with him now in his various positions he has 
had since that time, at the U.N. and in Iraq.
  He is a man of great talent and depth. I believe there are many of 
us--and I am one of them--who had severe questions about the direction 
we were taking in terms of this new Director of National Intelligence 
and how it would relate to existing agencies and to the State 
Department and to the Department of Defense and to the National 
Security Agency and all others who are involved in intelligence and 
relate to those in the Congress who have the oversight responsibility 
for the intelligence function and for the classified areas of the 
activities of our Nation.
  John Negroponte is a man who can do this job. He is a man of great 
talent. But more than that, he has demonstrated the ability to work 
with people and various entities, not only here in our country but 
throughout the world. This new Director of National Intelligence could 
well become the most important Cabinet position we have in the years to 
come. John Negroponte is the man to fashion that office, to determine 
what it needs in order to function properly at the beginning, and to 
set the course for this new intelligence agency.
  So I am here to urge that the Senate promptly approve this nomination 
and confirm John Negroponte so he can start on this very important 
task.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coleman). The Senator from Arizona is 
recognized.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I associate myself with the remarks of the 
senior Senator from Alaska concerning the qualifications of John 
Negroponte. Both the Senator from Alaska and I have known him for many 
years and his service is one of great distinction. I am confident he 
will receive the endorsement of an overwhelming majority of the Senate.

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