Senate panel clears 24 ambassadors and other diplomatic nominees

by Julian Pecquet - 10/31/13 10:40 AM ET

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee cleared a massive 24 nominees for top diplomatic posts on Thursday, including 16 ambassadors.

The nominees include Greg Starr, President Obama’s pick to replace Eric Boswell, who resigned as Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security over last year’s attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. The panel also cleared top Obama donors for ambassadorships in the Netherlands, Portugal and the Dominican Republic, while former deputy chief of planning Mark Childress is slated to go to Tanzania.

{mosads}Although uncontroversial, the nominees face an uncertain future in the Senate, where Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has vowed to block all of President Obama’s nominees over unanswered questions about Benghazi. Graham is demanding that lawmakers be granted access to Americans who survived the assault on Sept. 11, 2012, and their testimony to the FBI.

Here’s the full list of nominees cleared by the panel:

Mr. Gregory B. Starr, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security

Mr. Mark Bradley Childress, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to the United Republic of Tanzania

Mr. Thomas F. Daughton, of Arizona, to be Ambassador to Namibia

Mr. Matthew Harrington, of Virginia, to be Ambassador to Lesotho

The Honorable Eunice S. Reddick, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to Niger

Mr. John Hoover, of Massachusetts, to be Ambassador to Sierra Leone

Mr. Michael S. Hoza, of Washington, to be Ambassador to Cameroon

Mr. Tomasz P. Malinowski, of the District of Columbia, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

Ms. Crystal Nix-Hines, of California, to be the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization

Ms. Pamela K. Hamamoto, of Hawaii, to be Representative of the United States of America to the Office of the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva

The Honorable Philip S. Goldberg, of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Republic of the Philippines

The Honorable Robert O. Blake, Jr., of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia

Ms. Karen Clark Stanton, of Michigan, to be Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

Mr. Timothy Broas, of Maryland, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands

Mr. Donald Lu, of California, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Albania

Mr. Robert A. Sherman, of Massachusetts, to be Ambassador to the Portuguese Republic

The Honorable Anne W. Patterson, of Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

Mr. Adam M. Scheinman, of Virginia, to be Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation

The Honorable Rose Eilene Gottemoeller, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security

Mr. Frank A. Rose, of Massachusetts, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance

Mr. Dwight L. Bush, Sr., of the District of Columbia, to be Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco

Mr. James Brewster, Jr., of Illinois, to be Ambassador to the Dominican Republic

Mr. Brian A. Nichols, of Rhode Island, to be Ambassador to the Republic of Peru

The Honorable Carlos Roberto Moreno, of California, to be Ambassador to Belize