we are joined this afternoon by ambassador kurt volker and mr. timothy morrison. he served in the u.s. foreign service for nearly 30 years working on european and eurasian political and security issues under five different presidential administrations. during the george w. bush administration, he served as the acting director for european and eurasian affairs and the national security council and later as a deputy assistant secretary of state for european and eurasian affairs. in 2008, president bush appointed ambassador volker to the united states representative to nato where he served until may 2009. on july 2017, he was appointed to be the u.s. special representative for ukraine negotiations serving in that position until he resigned in september. is a pleasure to welcome mr. morrison back to the legislative branch where he served for almost two decades as a republican staffer. he was a professional staff member for representative mark kennedy of minnesota and senator john keil of a