The United States Secretary of the Interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natural resources, leading such agencies as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National Park Service. The secretary also serves on and appoints the private citizens on the National Park Foundation Board. The secretary is a member of the United States Cabinet and reports to the president of the United States. The function of the U.S. Department of the Interior is different from that of the interior minister designated in many other countries.
The United States Refugee Act of 1980 is an amendment to the earlier Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, and was created to provide a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission to the United States of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the U.S., and to provide comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettlement and absorption of those refugees who are admitted. The act was completed on March 3, 1980, was signed by President Jimmy Carter on March 17, 1980, and became effective on April 1, 1980. This was the first comprehensive amendment of U.S. general immigration laws designed to face up to the realities of modern refugee situations by stating a clear-cut national policy and providing a flexible mechanism to meet the rapidly shifting developments of today's world policy. The main objectives of the act were to create a new, American definition of refugee based on the one created at the 1951 UN Convention and 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees; raise the limitation from 17,400 to 50,000 refugees admitted each fiscal year; provide emergency procedures for when that number exceeds 50,000; require annual consultation between Congress and the President on refugee admissions; and establish the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Most importantly, it established explicit procedures on how to deal with refugees in the U.S. by creating a uniform and effective resettlement and absorption policy.
Assistant Secretary of State (A/S) is a title used for many executive positions in the United States Department of State, ranking below the under secretaries. A set of six assistant secretaries reporting to the under secretary for political affairs manage diplomatic missions within their designated geographic regions, plus one assistant secretary dealing with international organizations and one equivalent as the coordinator/ambassador at large for counterterrorism. Assistant secretaries usually manage individual bureaus of the Department of State. When the manager of a bureau or another agency holds a title other than assistant secretary, such as "director", it can be said to be of "assistant secretary equivalent rank". Assistant secretaries typically have a set of deputies, referred to as deputy assistant secretaries (DAS).
Ellen Richmond Sauerbrey is an American politician from Maryland and the former head of the United States Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. She was nominated to the Bureau in September 2005 by President George W. Bush. On January 4, 2006, Bush placed her in office by way of a recess appointment, bypassing the need for Senate confirmation. Her confirmation was unlikely, given strong objections by some senators. Sauerbrey's recess appointment caused some controversy; however, her experience as minority leader in the Maryland House of Delegates and managing a complex U.S. Census project helped rally others to her cause.
The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs is the head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs within the United States Department of State. The assistant secretary guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic establishment in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and advises the secretary of state and the Under Secretary for Political Affairs on matters relating to the area.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance is the head of the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance. The position was created on December 12, 1999, by Secretary Albright as the Assistant Secretary of State for Verification and Compliance. The Bureau became fully operational on February 1, 2000, and was first known as the Verification and Compliance Bureau. Within the department, the Assistant Secretary is responsible for all matters relating to the supervision of verification and compliance with international arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament agreements. The bureau was given its current name during the Obama administration.
The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) is a bureau within the United States Department of State.
Peter Michael McKinley is an American diplomat. A career Foreign Service Officer, McKinley served as U.S. Ambassador to Peru (2007–2010), Colombia (2010–2013), Afghanistan (2015–2016), and Brazil (2017–2018), and then as Senior Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State (2018–2019).
The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs was the head of the Bureau of Public Affairs within the United States Department of State. The Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs reports to the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. On May 28, 2019, the bureau merged with the Bureau of International Information Programs into the Bureau of Global Public Affairs, and the duties of the Assistant Secretary of State merged into the duties of the Assistant Secretary of State for Global Public Affairs.
Julia Ann Vadala Taft was a United States official who was involved in international humanitarian assistance, and who served as Director of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance from 1986 to 1989, and as Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 1997 to 2001.
Anne Claire Richard is an American former diplomat who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration from 2012 to 2017. In October 2021, Richard joined Freedom House as a Distinguished Fellow and Afghanistan Coordination Lead.
Robert Frank Godec is an American diplomat who has served as the United States ambassador to Thailand since October 2022. He formerly served as the United States ambassador to Kenya from 2013 to 2019 and the United States ambassador to Tunisia from 2006 to 2009. He also served as acting assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs from January to September 2021.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield is an American diplomat who serves as the United States ambassador to the United Nations under President Joe Biden. She served as the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017. Thomas-Greenfield then worked in the private sector as a senior vice president at business strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington, D.C.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization Operations is the head of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations within the United States Department of State, supporting the department's conflict and crisis-response efforts. The assistant secretary reports to the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights.
Julieta Valls Noyes is an American diplomat who is serving as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration in the Biden administration. She previously served as the United States Ambassador to Croatia from 2015 to 2017 during the Obama administration.
Reuben E. Brigety II is an American diplomat and academic who has served as the United States ambassador to South Africa since August 2022. He was the vice-chancellor and president of the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, from 2020 to 2021. Previously, Brigety served as dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Prior to that, Brigety has served as United States ambassador to the African Union, as a deputy assistant secretary of state, and as permanent representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Mark C. Storella a graduate of the Roxbury Latin School, Harvard College and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, is Dean of the Leadership and Management School at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) as of May 28, 2019. Storella was U.S. Ambassador to Zambia from 2010 to 2013.
Simon Henshaw was an American diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Guinea from 2019 until his death.
Nazanin Ash is the chief executive officer of Welcome.US and has previously worked in the US State Department of state in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs leading the Middle East Partnership Initiative and at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on international development and HIV/AIDS. Born to parents who left Iran, she is an advocate for American support for refugees, and was named in Washingtonian's list of the 500 most influential people in Washington, DC, in 2022.
