WASHINGTON — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a business meeting for Wednesday, Nov. 18, to vote on 17 of President Trump’s nominations, including Sarah B. Rogers to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media and ambassadors to Indonesia, Colombia, Serbia and Lithuania, according to the committee’s posted agenda.
The business meeting, listed as an executive session with no video broadcast, is set for 9 a.m. in Room S-116 of the Capitol. The agenda says “additional nominations will be added.” It does not yet list the 10 nominees, led by Rep. Wesley Hunt of Texas for ambassador to Saudi Arabia, who testified before the panel on Nov. 10, as the Inquisitor reported.
A favorable committee vote sends a nomination to the full Senate, which must still confirm it. Every nominee on the list has already testified. The earliest, Keith Noreika of Pennsylvania, the nominee for ambassador to Lithuania, appeared at a June 25 hearing. The most recent group testified on Sept. 30.
Who is on the agenda
The best-known name is Rogers, who now serves as under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. At her July 30 hearing, she told senators that “countering propaganda without countenancing censorship has been my core mission,” according to her prepared statement.
Rogers said the president’s executive order directing the agency to operate at its statutory minimum means “the agency should do what Congress codified — no more and no less.” If confirmed, she said, her first priority would be “to stabilize the agency, strengthen its leadership, modernize its operations, and restore research capacity,” and she pledged to “engage consistently with Congress.”
The agenda also lists Rebekah Jurata of California for U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund and Jennifer Johnson-Carroll of Florida for ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, who testified alongside Rogers.
Nathaniel Morris of Kentucky, the nominee for Colombia, told the committee at an Aug. 5 hearing that “the future of American foreign policy rests on America’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere.” In his statement, he described founding a waste management company that he took public on the New York Stock Exchange. Peter McCoy of South Carolina, the nominee for Montenegro, testified the same day.
William Grayson of California, the nominee for Indonesia, said in his Sept. 24 statement that he would work on “the full implementation of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade signed in February by President Trump and President Prabowo.” Mark Abreu of Florida (El Salvador) and Nicholas Checker of Wisconsin (Rwanda) appeared with him.
Noreika, the Lithuania nominee, noted in his statement that Lithuania has committed to spend more than 5% of its economic output on defense. “President Trump has been clear that NATO Allies must meet their obligations,” he said.
From a Sept. 17 hearing come Michael Young of Utah for Serbia, Ronald Johnson of Massachusetts for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Julia Nesheiwat of Florida for ambassador-at-large for the Arctic.
The Sept. 30 group includes three career members of the Senior Foreign Service with ties to the Washington region: William Flens of the District of Columbia, nominated for Chad; Marc Dillard of Virginia, nominated for Madagascar and, concurrently, the Comoros; and Jessica Long of Virginia, nominated for Mauritania. Justin Bytheway of Utah (Tonga) and Douglas Holder of Florida (Bulgaria) round out that panel.
The year-end clock
The vote comes as the Senate works through a lame-duck session before the 119th Congress ends on Jan. 3. Under Senate Rule XXXI, nominations that are neither confirmed nor rejected by the end of a session cannot be acted on in the next session unless the president submits them again. Nominations are also returned to the president if the Senate adjourns or recesses for more than 30 days, unless the Senate agrees by unanimous consent to hold them.
Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) leads the committee, and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) is its ranking member. The committee’s Nov. 10 hearing record stayed open through Nov. 12 for written questions, the Inquisitor reported.
Featured photo: Sarah B. Rogers, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, in her official 2025 portrait. (U.S. Department of State / public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped)
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