Senate Foreign Relations Panel Backs Foley As Ambassador To Japan Former Ambassador To Israel To Head Near East Bureau

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday endorsed former House Speaker Tom Foley as ambassador to Japan.

Foley, a Democrat first elected to the House in 1964, is a longtime advocate of trade with Japan and other Pacific Rim nations. His home state of Washington is a leading exporter to the region.

Foley was defeated in the 1994 Republican takeover of the House. Since the upset, he has been associated with a Washington, D.C., law firm.

His long-anticipated nomination was welcomed in Japan. If confirmed, Foley would replace Walter Mondale, the former Democratic vice president who resigned as ambassador in December.

The Foreign Relations Committee also approved the nomination of Martin Indyk, as head of the State Department’s Near East bureau.

Indyk, the first Jew to have served as U.S. ambassador to Israel, has been critical of the Israeli government over its policy of expanding Jewish settlements around Jerusalem.

The Senate panel also unanimously endorsed the ambassadorial nominations of Wyche Fowler to Saudi Arabia, Stephen Bosworth to South Korea and Alphonse La Porte to Mongolia.

Clinton nominated Fowler, a former senator from Georgia, to the embassy in Riyadh in June 1996. After two months passed without the Senate scheduling a hearing, Clinton put Fowler in the post by invoking a rarely used authority to make appointments without Senate approval when Congress is in recess.