*EPF514 09/14/01
Congressional Report, September 14: Negroponte
(Becomes U.N. ambassador) (280)

SENATE CONFIRMS NEGROPONTE AS UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR

President Bush's designee to become the U.N. ambassador and U.S. representative to the U.N. Security Council won confirmation in the U.S. Senate September 14, by voice vote and without debate.

Veteran career diplomat John Negroponte had been approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 14-3 September 13, with committee members citing the need to fill the post quickly at a time of global crisis. He has served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Mexico and Honduras.

The committee vote to recommend confirmation came immediately after a hearing at which Negroponte was questioned extensively about long-standing reports that he had suppressed information on human rights abuses in Honduras while serving as ambassador there in the early 1980s.

The United States has been without an ambassador at the United Nations since Richard Holbrooke left office with the end of the Clinton administration, on January 20.

Bush announced his intention to nominate Negroponte on March 6, but did not actually submit his name to the Senate until May 14. Delays in considering the nomination continued after that point, as the committee sought Central Intelligence Agency and State Department documents relating to the nominee's tenure in Honduras.

The Senate also confirmed, without debate or a recorded vote, nominations of four other U.S. envoys: Laura Kennedy to Turkmenistan, Ronald Neumann to Bahrain, Marcelle Wahba to the United Arab Emirates and Patrick Kennedy as representative to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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