Nomination of Samantha Power

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I rise to voice my strong support
for the confirmation of Ambassador Samantha Power to be the next
Administrator of the United States Agency for International
Development. I am confident that she brings the talent, skill, and
experience required of this office and is the right person to lead this
pivotal agency at a critical point in America's return to global
leadership.
Ambassador Power has worn many different hats throughout her sterling
career--advocate, academic, advisor, and diplomat. But that trajectory
has been propelled in large part by her time as a journalist, where she
saw the day-to-day experiences of those living in places struggling
against the tides of war, famine, genocide, and disease. She witnessed,
first-hand, the tireless efforts of USAID Foreign Service officers
working in partnership with local stakeholders to uplift and empower
communities around the world. And those early experiences seeing the
work of USAID and the challenges the agency faces continue to guide her
path.
Like Ambassador Power, I spent the early part of my career seeing
global conflict up close. As a staffer working on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee in 1988, I travelled to Iraq after Saddam Hussein
used poison gas against the Kurdish people. It's a trip that Ambassador
Power recounts in her first book, A Problem from Hell, which won her
the Pulitzer Prize in 2003--and it's a trip that animates so much of
the work I do in the United States Senate.
The world witnessed the horrific chemical weapons attacks on the
Kurdish people in Halabja in March 1988 and later that year, together
with my colleague, Peter Galbraith, I interviewed Kurdish survivors of
other chemical attacks that followed. It was a heartrending journey
that stays with me to this day. But that experience, like Ambassador
Power's experiences in Bosnia, East Timor, Darfur, West Africa, and
elsewhere, instilled in me a sense of moral urgency that hasn't tired
in the three decades since--and I know hasn't tired in Ambassador Power
either.
I'm confident that she'll employ that sense of urgency in her new
role as the Administrator of USAID, which bolsters peace and prosperity
both in developing nations and here at home. The biggest threats that
we face are interconnected and global--from climate change to
cybersecurity to pandemics. As we've seen throughout the past year,
viruses know no borders, and our ability to defeat COVID-19 depends
upon our willingness to partner with other nations to stop the spread
and mount a successful recovery. And as we reassert American values at
the core of our foreign policy, we will also need to combat the Chinese
government's efforts to export its model of authoritarianism to
governments in developing countries. USAID will be at forefront of
these missions and others. In Ambassador Power's own words,
``Development is critical to America's ability to tackle the toughest
problems of our time--economic, humanitarian, and geopolitical.''
Madam President, there is no doubt in my mind that Ambassador
Samantha Power will serve our country well as the next Administrator of
USAID. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of her confirmation.

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