Political Quotes

“for nearly 14 years, Eric Newsom has dedicated his professional career, along with his knowledge and background in foreign policy, to the U.S. Senate. I first had the opportunity to work with Eric when he served as minority staff director in the mid-1980's during my term on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. For the past 3 years, I have worked with Eric to ensure the creation and continuation of a program I care deeply about--a large-scale high school exchange program with the former Soviet Union that has become a key component of our assistance to Russia and the other republics. As Senator Leahy's chief foreign policy, defense, and security adviser since the early 1980's, Eric has made many contributions to the Senate's formulation of foreign policy. In his most recent position, staff director of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, he negotiated passage of two of the U.S. Congress' most important foreign aid packages in the post-cold-war era--funding for the FREEDOM Support Act of 1992 and last fall's $2.5-billion NIS assistance package. At a time when the former Soviet republics have needed our assistance in making the transition to democracy and a free market economy, the impact of Eric's leadership and understanding of the issues have been felt all the way to other side of the globe. As Eric departs for new challenges at the State Department, we will miss him.…”