Trump nominates 4 to top foreign service rank

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is nominating four career foreign service officers to the rank of career ambassador, the first such nominations under an administration that has been criticized for gutting the State Department’s senior staff.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote on Philip Goldberg, interim charge d’affairs at the U.S. embassy in Havana; David Hale, ambassador to Pakistan; Michele Sison, ambassador to Haiti and Daniel Smith, assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research.

Confirmation by the full Senate would follow.

Former secretary Rex Tillerson spent part of his 14 months in office cutting the agency’s staff and budget. Trump replaced Tillerson with Mike Pompeo this spring.