For austria as well as the osce mission that you and i had a chance to talk about all are housed in vienna. So youre part of a Diplomatic Team that we have in a critically important place where major decisions are being made. Obviously the focus today is very much on the responsibilities and the implementation of the iran agreement by the iaea and as we talked privately and ill repeat now and as i pointed out to ambassador shannon, your openness with us is critically important and appreciate the commitments that youve made in that regard. Mr. Chairman, im also pleased to note that a former member of this body who worked closely with Laura Holgate during the eight years she worked at the Nuclear Threat initiative has written a letter on her behalf touting mrs. Holgate superb only in and skills and passion for reducing global dangers. I would request that be part of our record. Without objection. Thank you, senator cardin. I will turn to our second nominee. Thats Laura Holgate who is nominated to serve as ambassador and u. S. Representative to the United Nations and International Atomic energy sergeant agentsy. Shes advised the president for over six years in special assistant to the president and senior director for weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and Threat Reduction in the National Security council. She received her bachelor of arts from Princeton University and a masters in science from the Massachusetts Institute of technology. We welcome you. If you could summarize your thoughts in about five minutes, we will look forward to questions and, again, congratulations on your nomination. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman, Ranking Member cardin, members of the committee. Im honored to appear before you today as the president s nominee to serve as the u. S. Permanent representative to the vienna offices of the United Nations, the International AtomicEnergy Agency and other International Organizations in vienna. Im grateful to president obama and to secretary kerry for the kfsz they have placed in me. This is a critical moment for the United States interests in the iaea and the other u. N. Offices in vienna. Full implementation of the joint comprehensive plan of action with iran, Successful Transition of the Nuclear Security summits work to secure and reduce global stockpiles of Nuclear Material to the relevant Enduring International institutions, safe and secure expansion of Nuclear Energy and other Peaceful Nuclear technologies and innovative peaceful applications of Space Science depend on active, focused leadership and engagement by the United States to promote our National Interests and to advance our contributions toward shared global priorities. My experience inside and outside the u. S. Government has prepared me to play this vital role in vienna. Ive worked on reducing nuclear, biological and chemical threats since 1989. I have served a combined 14 years in the department of defense, the department of energy, and at the National Security council where i led programs and developed policies to keep materials out of terrorist hands, to destroy chemical weapons in russia, libya, and syria and to prevent bioterrorism. For eight years i headed the nongovernment Nuclear Threat initiatives programs in the former soviet union and pioneered projects such as the iaeas low enriched uranium fuel bank. Most relevant to the position for which i am being considered, i have led the preparation of four Nuclear Security summit, working closely with counterparts from 52 diverse countries and four International Organizations, including the United Nations and the iaea. Each of these positions has contributed to my ability to represent the United States and the president with authority and respect. If i may, mr. Chairman, i would like to introduce to you and the committee three very special people who have joined me hear today my husband rick holgate has for 27 years steadfastly supported my career even as he has built his own impressive accomplishments in Government Service and in the private sector. I am proud and grateful for his encouragement and partnership as we consider this new opportunity to serve. My parents, susan and burt hayes are here from richmond as well. My father as a twa pilot opened my eyes, ears, and mind to the wide world beyond overland park, kansas. And my mother set the example of opening our doors and our hearts to people who are different from us. These early influences launched me on the path to todays hearing and i hope to honor their faith in me by my service. And i deeply appreciate the support of friends and colleagues who are watching these proceedings today. Mr. Chairman, if i am confirmed in this position, i pledge to strengthen and broaden the partnerships with other Member States and with the u. N. Agencies in vienna and further develop the coalitions that we need to achieve u. S. Priorities. The key among these goals is that the iaea has the tools it needs to monitor implementation of the p5 1 iran joint comprehensive plan of action. Going forward, the iaea with its proven record of Technical Expertise offers us an agency well placed to ensure robust implementation. I pledge to play my role in keeping congress informed and engaged as this implementation process proceeds. Another opportunity i see is to leverage the u. N. Office of drugs and crimes Technical Assistance to counter and prevent terrorism and trafficking through training and other support for judges and prosecutors, especially those in highthreat regions and countries. U. N. O. D. C. s efforts complement our own counterterrorism efforts and reach countries we may not be able to engage directly. Finally, if confirmed i will press organizations in vienna to continue to make progress on management reforms, transparency and fairness. I will encourage intensified efforts towards achieving greater diversity, including at the senior and policymaking levels. I will continue the efforts of my predecessors to strongly support the hiring of qualified american citizens to these organizations. Mr. Chairman, the specialized and technical agencies in vienna foster activities and technologies that affect the lives of every citizen everyday, from combatting the spread of Nuclear Weapons in human and arms trafficking to harnessing the power of the atom to promote human health and reduce and eliminate hunger to utilizing space for communication, disaster Early Warning and exploration and research. If confirmed, i would work in close consultation with this committee and the congress to ensure that u. S. Values and priorities are fully reflected in our positions and that u. S. Contributions and resources are expended with care. We owe the American People and the people all over the world no less. I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and i look forward to your questions. Well, thank you very much. If you would, explain i know we have a gentleman, former ambassador steven maul who will be overseeing the implementation. How are your role and his role interact . Thank you, sir. If confirmed, i would be continuing as i would be part of ambassador molls team of interagency partners. The current charge in the position participatie ins in th meetings remotely and is in regular contact with ambassador moll. I would expect to continue and intensify that level of engagement in the inner Agency Policy process and the role in the in vienna is to be the eyes and ears on the ground of whats going on, not just the formal presentation of information from the secretariat but understanding the trends, the issues, the mood, how the conversations are going and being sure that those are reported back into the u. S. Policy process. Also, being alert to opportunities to improve activities or steps that may need to be taken and to be sure that those are incorporated into our governmentwide implementation efforts. Who do you actually, if confirmed, who will you actually receive direction if here in washington relative to positions that you take . The letter of commission for ambassadors typically says the directions come from the president and from the secretary of state, sir. My chain, my reporting chain goes through assistant secretary crocker and then up through the position that we just had the nominee for. But these issues are addressed in an interagency process and a wholeofgovernment effort and i will, if confirmed, play the role that im assigned in that context. I know youre going to get some questions from someone, whether qfr and personal, in a personal way relative to whether youre involved in the negotiation of the jcpoa and so id like to give you the opportunity publicly to state what your involvement was. Appreciate that question, senator, as we discussed in our conversation which appreciated i was not part of the negotiating team, nor was i privy to the judgments made in the process of that negotiation. I am, however, familiar with its contents and i am fully prepared to vigorously support its implementation in the iaea. And will you have the opportunity in this position if confirmed to be able to read the side agreements that were negotiated . Mr. Senator, the side agreements that are referred to are actually safeguards agreements that are Bilateral Agreements between the iaea and the member state. Those are safeguards confidential and those are not shared with any Member States. I hadnt planned to go down this route but im just curious, then, what kind of oversight role do you have in this position . Well, the international in other words, so you have to director so the director is just able to negotiate whatever the director wishes and the folks who do what you do have no oversight role . No board of directors type role relative to the entity . Senator, its my understanding that safeguards agreements are Bilateral Agreements between the secretariat and the member state. Thats true for every country thats a member of the iaea. The u. S. Has a similar safeguards agreement that is not public, is not available to other Member States. This is part of how the iaea maintains the confidentiality of information that is supplied in connection with that. The iaea is, however, required to report on its findings on confirmation and verification of the commitments made in these safeguards agreements and those are the reports that are provided by to Member States and that we will be providing to the congress as they come from the secretariat. And, again, i know you have nothing do with how this has been set up, this is not directed at you, im just, again, had not planned to go down this route. So thats odd, i would seem to me, that the safeguards agreement is the agreement as to how the work is going to be carried out. So youre not really conveying any confidential information, youre just talking about how youre going to deal with that entity to find out or that country to find out how theyre progressing in the agreements that are made. Why would that be kept away from the folks, if you will, that are overseeing this particular organization . Im just curious as to why you think that would be the case . Mr. Senator, the safeguards agreements include a range of technical details, including design of nuclear facilities, including proprietary information about how those facilities operate, an extreme amount of technical detail that helps the agency understand where it needs to apply safeguards, how it has to do with the process that is executed in that facility. Those are that is not information that countries are eager to share with other countries and, frankly, from a nonproliferation point of view, thats not information youre eager to have made public. One of the things that concerned people no matter how they ended up voting relative to the agreement, i think there was a concern, universal concern, about the issue of possible military dimensions and the fact that the all iran had to do was go through the process and whether the iaea came up with a report that was an aplus report or a dminus report it didnt matter as long as the process was gone through, if you will. That was very concerning, i think, to a lot of people and somewhat shocking and i guess i would ask you, lets say youre confirmed and, you know, the report comes back as a dminus. In other words, we really didnt learn much because they didnt provide much information which, again, concerned a lot of people. What is in the this particular role that you would be able to do about that, if anything . Senator, as i understand it, the iaea will be delivering its report in middecember. If i am fortunate enough to achieve your confidence by then in order to be there at that time that report will be provided to the board of governors of the iaea and the board will have a chance to act and engage on the basis of that information. The jcpoa is focused on the future rather than the past so its mission is to make sure that those activities do not occur again, that if, in fact, there are steps taken towards possible military activities of iran that those are alerted to, that those are identified by the iaea, alerted to Member States and in a timely fashion that allows us to take steps to prevent them from happening again. But you do agree with all the technical background that you have that having knowledge as to how far theyve gone in the past towards weaponization is an important element in discerning how quickly in the future they will be able to move towards that same goal, is it not . Yes, sir. Knowledge is absolutely an important component of approaches to a military program but all the knowledge in the world is does not get you to a weapon if they dont have material, if they dont have the with all to make material that could be used as a weapon and thats the mission of the iaea, to monitor in an unprecedentedly intrusive way from the mines all the way throw the reactor and after. Every piece of Nuclear Material that is used in iran. And that is where we gain the confidence that that knowledge will not be misapplied. Ill move on to senator cardin, my time is up. I probably will have more questions. Im going to follow up on your question first. The director general of the iaea reports that the board of governors, youre our representative on the board of governors, we expect that you will have access to all information you need to properly manage the director general, the iaea and represent the United States. And i dont disagree with your analysis that the agreements were referring to are confidential agreements between the negotiated by the iaea and the Member States and confidentiality is maintained. Irans somewhat different. During the negotiations of the jcpoa a representative of the United States was allowed to review those documents and i dont know whether that was done directly by the iaea or by iran but it was done and i mention that because i think as senator corker pointed out, were going to need a clear understanding as to how iran is proceeding, particularly as it relates to its military dimensions. But theres more to it than that. And a working understanding of the arrangements between the iaea and the iran is going to be essential for you to be fully read into that. And i think you will and then we need your candid assessments as to how much information we receive and whether its in compliance with the jcpoa. So i just really wanted to underscore that point. I understand confidentiality but i also understand responsibilities of the board of governs and youre the key player in that regard so you have responsibility here. Let me just ask you an open question on this which is where do you see the greatest challenges within the iaea in assuring compliance by iran of its commitments under jcpoa, which that part that comes under the responsibilities of the iaea. Senator, thank you for that question. The i think the most challenging components of this agreement are going to be these novel aspects of the safeguards activities that the iaea is being asked to undertake under the jcpoa. The work that theyre doing at the mine, in the milling, in the conversion process of how uranium is handled within the country is unprecedented. Now, the u. S. Has continued its long tradition of providing training, information, technical support, equipment to the iaea Safeguards Community and that will that continues to be the case and it will be even more important as these safeguards inspectors are trained for these new roles so the u. S. Stands fully ready to play its traditional role of strong support to make sure the agency has the people, the resources, and the technology it needs to carry out these new roles. And even though they will not be inspectors carrying u. S. Passports, the United States plays a Critical Role here as far as training and information, et cetera. Im assuming thats what youre referring to . Thats precisely what im referr