[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 20 (Monday, May 24, 1999)]
[Pages 932-933]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Withdrawal of the Nomination of Brian Atwood To Be 
Ambassador to Brazil

May 18, 1999

    Today Brian Atwood asked me to withdraw his nomination to be the 
United States Ambassador to Brazil. I have accepted his request with 
reluctance and regret.
    Few people in pubic life have better combined the qualities of 
professional competence and moral purpose. Brian Atwood has served with 
distinction as Administrator

[[Page 933]]

of the Agency for International Development, making it more effective 
while tenaciously defending its mission and its independence. He has 
helped put the fight against poverty, civil strife, and disease in the 
developing world at the heart of our foreign policy, where it belongs, 
and where I am confident it will stay. When I asked him last month to 
lead America's effort to bring aid to the refugees escaping Kosovo, I 
knew we would be getting the very best. That is what America gets every 
time Brian Atwood goes to work.
    In his statement today, he said that Washington owes us nothing but 
the ``opportunity to serve.'' I believe we owe Brian Atwood something 
more: our gratitude for continually making a difference in the lives of 
millions of people around the world.
    I thank him for his many contributions and for his willingness to 
stay on as our AID Administrator, where he is doing an outstanding job 
as our Kosovo humanitarian coordinator. And I am confident he will have 
many opportunities to serve our Nation again.