Biden Nominates Leahy To Join US Delegation To The UN For This Month’s 77th Annual mtg. Of The UN General Assembly

President Biden today (Tuesday) nominated Senator Leahy to join the U.S. Delegation to the United Nations, for the upcoming annual meeting of the UN General Assembly later this month.  Leahy has long led on U.S. foreign policy matters, including U.S. support for the United Nations.  He chairs the Appropriations Committee and for decades has been either the chair or the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State Department and Foreign Operations, which handles the Senate’s work in writing the annual foreign policy budget.  Excerpts from the White House announcement are BELOW –

President Biden Announces Key Nominees

SEPTEMBER 06, 2022 • STATEMENTS AND RELEASES

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his administration: 

1. Senator Patrick Leahy, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
2. Senator Jim Risch, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
3. S. Douglas Bunch, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
4. Carol Leslie Hamilton, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
5. Andrew Weinstein, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Senator Patrick Leahy, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77^th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate and Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He served for more than 30 years as Chair or Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations and State Department Subcommittee where he worked with Democratic and Republican administrations on funding, oversight and management of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. contributions to the UN, its peacekeeping operations, food security, global health, and environmental programs. He is also the senior-most member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he chairs the Intellectual Property Subcommittee. On the Agriculture Committee he has led on hunger and nutrition issues and helped create the Dole-McGovern international nutrition program. He is the author of the Leahy Laws, which bar training, equipment, and other assistance to units of foreign security forces that have committed human rights abuses. These laws have become the most effective tools in the U.S. human rights toolkit. He also authored the War Victims Fund – which his colleagues have renamed the Leahy War Victims Fund – that provides prosthetics and other support to civilian victims of war around the world. The landmines export ban that Leahy introduced and steered to enactment was an impetus for what became the international mine ban treaty. He has long been one of Congress’s leading champions for global health initiatives. Leahy’s initiatives for the remediation of toxic Agent Orange sites and assistance for persons with disabilities in Vietnam have become a keystone in the dramatic improvement of U.S.-Vietnam relations. He played a central role in the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba during the Obama administration. He has introduced the Patents for Humanity Act, to provide rewards for U.S. patents that meet humanitarian needs in developing nations. He also has introduced the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, to provide support through the State Department to recognize musicians whose works or performances have advanced peace abroad.

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