gayle smith is a superbly qualified nominee who will almost certainly be confirmed by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote. the senate serves the chance to vote on this critical nomination. so again, i urge the majority leader to bring her nomination to the floor. we discussed it again today in the foreign relations committee, and i know my colleague from delaware can speak also to what we heard in the foreign relations committee. so i would yield to my colleague from delaware to discuss what we've heard in the foreign reels committee about gayle smith and the need to put her in this place as leader of usaid. mr. coons: mr. president, confirmation and expiration are issues before us today. as we've heard from the member from new hampshire, the senate foreign relations committee on which we both serve months ago considered the nomination of gayle smith to be the next administrator of us aivmen u us. today 60 million people are displaced throughout the world. it is the single greatest refugee crisis since the end of the second world war. and gayle sminl came before our committee and receive

gayle smith has been nominated to lead this agency. this good woman can't even get a vote in the senate. senator cruz has been blocking her nomination for months. why? is there anything that's wrong about her? of course not. the agreement -- it's because he doesn't like the iran nuclear agreement. remember what the iran nuclear agreement was. it was an effort by the international community, including russia and china, to stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon. that's what it was all about. so, mr. cruz, i guess in his attempt to become president -- one of 15 republicans to become president -- thinks this will be a good issue for him, blocking the person this government has chosen to lead this agency. she has extensive -- ms. smith, gayle smith has extensive experience in african affairs. she worked at this agency during the clinton administration. she is exactly what we need to confront this crisis in europe. even the chairman of the foreign reels committee, the junior -- foreign relations committee, the junior senator from tennessee,

gayle. >> rock 'n' roll hall of famer patti smith calls a book a new memoir of her life. >> i'm in a different phase of my life and i found it's hard to keep still, but i'm also moving into a new phase where i'm looking to have someplace where >> next, she shows anthony on the scene as a provocateur in the '70s and putting poetry to music and at the age of 68 she still performs and more of her fans know her for her books than her albums. her last book won the national book award. we went to see her new home in rockaway queens, new york, one of the many places in her new memoir "m-train." 40 years ago next month, patti smith released her debut album. how do you feel about that anniversary? >> well, when i was a kid, i didn't even believe that i would live until i was 40, let alone have a 40th anniversary of something! because tonight belongs to lovers." "because the night" written with bruce springsteen, would be her biggest chart hit but her greatest commercial success came her memoir "just kids." >> when we do our concerts now, it used to be the kids would bring your album. then they brought

gayle. >> rock 'n' roll hall of famer patti smith calls a book a new memoir of her life. >> i'm in a different a new phase where i'm looking to have someplace where i can keep still. >> next, she shows anthony how sh it took joel silverman years to become a master dog trainer. but only a few commands to master depositing checks at chase atms. technology designed for you. so you can easily master the way you bank. mi'm a lineman here in oakland. day in, day out, a large part of what we do is about providing reliable power to our customers. pg&e is dedicated to the community. i love working here because this is my home. oakland is my home. this is where i'm raising my children so it's important to me to make sure my family and friends have the power and energy that we provide. this is very personal to me. it makes me work a lot harder knowing that this is my community. together, we're building a better california. ♪ >>> rock star patti smith burst on the scene as a provocateur in the '70s and putting poetry to music and at the age of 68 she still performs and more of her fans know her for her bo

gayle smith had nothing to do with that. usaid had nothing to do with that. shouldn't we appoint this good person to manage this agency to deal with this international refugee crisis? and while we're at it, thomas melia of maryland, they're asking that he be the assistant administrator. wouldn't we want competent management when we're talking about billions of american tax dollars being spent wisely in this humanitarian effort? and yet they languish on this calendar. if there are objections to these nominees, state them. if not, approve them. mr. president, after greece, we had a visit to ukraine. i believe what's happening there is deeply important to us in the united states. i'm committed to seeing ukraine succeeds a democratic sovereign nation. it is hard to describe what's happened there. a shamefully corrupt regime deeply influenced by russia was rejected by the ukrainian people. as the country tried to get back on its feet and build a more transparent and democratic future, vladimir putin and russia staged an invasion first taking over crimea and then i