Sen. Bob Corker: Rex Tillerson the ‘Effective Leader’ State Department Needs

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called on his colleagues to support the nomination of Rex Tillerson to serve as Secretary of State shortly after the chamber voted Monday to end debate on the former Exxon-Mobil CEO’s confirmation.

“I have great confidence that Rex Tillerson will serve the United States well,” said Sen. Robert P. Corker Jr. (R.-Tenn.), whose committee voted 11-to-10 to recommend Tillerson to the whole Senate. Tillerson’s confirmation vote is scheduled for Wednesday.

“The proceedings in the Foreign Relations Committee for his nomination were fair, exhaustive, and in the best traditions of our committee and the Senate,” Corker said. “There is no question that the committee and the Senate has fulfilled its constitutional responsibility in carefully reviewing his nomination.”

The senator said Tillerson impressed him personally.

“In both my private meetings with him and in the hours of public testimony he offered before the Foreign Relations Committee, it has become clear he will be an effective leader at the State Department,” he said.

The chairman said in addition to private meetings and his eight-hearing committee hearing, Tillerson answered more than 1,000 additional questions.

Tillerson is also endorsed by former President George W. Bush; former Vice President Dick Cheney; former secretaries of state James A. Baker and Condoleezza Rice, as well as former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; and former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), he said.

“As we proceed in ensuring the new administration has the leaders it needs to implement our nation’s foreign policy going forward,” Corker said.

“I encourage all of my colleagues to support his confirmation,” he said.