WASHINGTON – The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved President Clinton’s nominations of a Maryland lawmaker as ambassador to Romania and a Bethesda woman to a top United Nations post.
The committee, without debate, approved Del. James C. Rosapepe, D-Prince George’s, for the Romanian post and Betty Eileen King to be the U.S. representative on the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council.
The nominations now go to the full Senate.
King is a vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, which helps disadvantaged children and their families.
Previously she was deputy commissioner of the D.C. Mental Health Services Commission, director of the Arkansas Office of Aging and an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.
The U.N. post carries the rank of ambassador.
Rosapepe, 46, has represented Prince George’s County for 11 years in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he has focused on tax legislation and education and is vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
If confirmed, Rosapepe would replace Alfred Moses as ambassador to the Eastern European nation of 23 million trying to improve its economic conditions and gain acceptance into NATO.
Clinton appointed Rosapepe in 1995 to the Board of the Albanian American Enterprise Fund, which was created to promote development of small- and medium-sized Albanian businesses.
Rosapepe is also president of Rosapepe and Spanos, a consulting firm based in Washington.
State government colleagues have expressed confidence in Rosapepe’s ability to represent the United States.
A Romanian-American group said it would have preferred the nomination of a career diplomat to the position, but predicted Rosapepe would do a good job.
Rosapepe has said he would work to strengthen U.S.-Romanian economic and political ties and help Romania in its transition from a communist nation to a democracy if confirmed.
Reached by telephone following the committee vote, the state legislator declined to comment pending the Senate vote.
King did not return telephone calls late Tuesday.
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