An important part of my responsibility as Secretary of State, and of the duties of our thousands of diplomats overseas, is to protect Americans from dangers that begin overseas. As part of that process, we require most foreigners who want to come to the United States to obtain visas at our Embassies and Consulates. Since September 11 of last year, we have worked very hard to improve our system to make sure we weed out those who mean us harm. I am determined to do this in a way that welcomes the many legitimate visitors to the United States, that welcomes the many relatives of American citizens, and that welcomes those who qualify as immigrants and want to follow in the path of our forefathers by becoming productive, stalwart members of our diverse society.
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion of our visa process. I have read the report of the General Accounting Office and other reports that have examined the system in great detail. I have received letters from Congress, from groups and from individuals. I have studied all these ideas carefully.
We have made many changes already. We have added millions of names to our information base. We are conducting more interviews and making applicants subject to more scrutiny. Further upgrading our system is a high priority for me, something I work on every day.
To continue to make the system better, I want the best leader for our Bureau of Consular Affairs. The President and I have selected Ambassador Maura Harty as our agent of change. She is an experienced leader and a firm decision-maker. I look forward to working with the Senate on her prompt confirmation when Congress returns. We need to fill this position quickly to protect the American people from those who will try to attack us in the future.
Biography
Maura Harty
Maura Harty was chosen for her current position as the Executive Secretary of the Department of State by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in May 2001.
Ambassador Harty entered the Foreign Service in 1981 after receiving a bachelor�s degree from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Following an initial assignment to the American Embassy in Mexico City, Ambassador Harty returned to Washington and immediately participated in the United States� rescue mission to Grenada. Ambassador Harty and another State Department officer flew in with international military forces to lead the search for endangered American students and retirees. She later served as a Watch Officer in the State Department�s Operations Center and was promoted to Senior Watch Officer during that assignment. In 1987-1988, Harty was a Special Assistant to then Secretary of State George P. Shultz.
Harty returned overseas in 1988 by volunteering for service at the American Embassy in Bogota, Colombia at the time judged to be among the most dangerous assignments available. As chief of the visa section, she pioneered new ways to identify drug traffickers and to establish legal means to impede their travel, as well as the travel of family members who benefited from the proceeds of narcotics trafficking. Ambassador Harty subsequently served as Consul at the American Embassy in Madrid. During that time she was also drafted to assist in the opening of the American Embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania.
In 1994, Ambassador Harty served as the Managing Director of the Directorate of Overseas Citizens Services, where she created the Office of Children�s Issues. The establishment of that office focused attention and resources for the first time on the tragic problem of international parental child abduction. The abduction unit of the Office of Children�s Issues has since grown to a staff of seventeen full time employees. In 2001, the office was actively involved in the return of 170 children from foreign countries and also handled over 400 "prevention" cases.
Ambassador Harty was selected as a Deputy Executive Secretary of the Department in 1995 and subsequently served as Executive Assistant to the Secretary of State. Following that assignment, she became the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay. The security of American citizens was always a critical factor of consideration in all of Ambassador Harty�s initiatives. In order to more quickly reach out to American citizens across the country, Ambassador Harty oversaw the reform of the American Citizen Cascade notification system to ensure that it could reach all Americans in Paraguay, including missionary groups in the remote Chaco region. She was also a strong and effective advocate for democracy and the rule of law as Paraguay confronted a series of constitutional crises. Through straightforward and transparent diplomacy, Harty and her Embassy team helped avert several possible coups and prevented an emerging democracy from slipping back toward its more authoritarian past.