Press Release - President Biden Announces Key Nominees

WASHINGTON – Today, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve as key leaders in his administration:

• Senator Patrick Leahy, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
• Senator Jim Risch, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
• S. Douglas Bunch, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
• Carol Leslie Hamilton, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations
• Andrew Weinstein, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Senator Patrick Leahy, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is the President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate and Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He served for more than 30 years as Chair or Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations and State Department Subcommittee where he worked with Democratic and Republican administrations on funding, oversight and management of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. contributions to the UN, its peacekeeping operations, food security, global health, and environmental programs. He is also the senior-most member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he chairs the Intellectual Property Subcommittee. On the Agriculture Committee he has led on hunger and nutrition issues and helped create the Dole-McGovern international nutrition program. He is the author of the Leahy Laws, which bar training, equipment, and other assistance to units of foreign security forces that have committed human rights abuses. These laws have become the most effective tools in the U.S. human rights toolkit. He also authored the War Victims Fund – which his colleagues have renamed the Leahy War Victims Fund – that provides prosthetics and other support to civilian victims of war around the world. The landmines export ban that Leahy introduced and steered to enactment was an impetus for what became the international mine ban treaty. He has long been one of Congress's leading champions for global health initiatives. Leahy's initiatives for the remediation of toxic Agent Orange sites and assistance for persons with disabilities in Vietnam have become a keystone in the dramatic improvement of U.S.-Vietnam relations. He played a central role in the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba during the Obama administration. He has introduced the Patents for Humanity Act, to provide rewards for U.S. patents that meet humanitarian needs in developing nations. He also has introduced the PEACE Through Music Diplomacy Act, to provide support through the State Department to recognize musicians whose works or performances have advanced peace abroad.

Senator Jim Risch, Nominee for Congressional Representative of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-ID) is the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As the lead Republican on the committee, Risch is focused on protecting the security and interests of the American people, in addition to continuing to advance U.S. prosperity and leadership in the world. Risch's top priority is China, and as such, he has introduced and advanced several legislative packages, including the first comprehensive legislative strategy to compete with China across a number of areas. He also delivered several speeches at prominent conferences and think tank events, and published an influential report on how the United States and its transatlantic allies should tackle shared challenges posed by the Chinese government in the coming years and decades. Other priorities of Risch include confronting Russian malign influence, strengthening NATO, and improving global health security, to name a few. Risch earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forestry from the University of Idaho, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Idaho, College of Law. He served on Law Review and the College of Law Advisory Committee at the University of Idaho and has taught criminal law at Boise State University. He is a small business owner, a rancher, and a farmer, and was a senior partner in the Risch Goss Insinger Gustavel law firm at the time of his election to the U.S. Senate.

S. Douglas Bunch, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

S. Douglas Bunch is a Partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a member of the Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice group, and Co-Chair of the firm's Pro Bono Committee. Bunch represents public and private pension fund investors in securities and shareholder class actions. Bunch has been recognized by the industry and named to Lawdragon's "500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers," Benchmark Litigation's "40 & Under Hot List," and Law360's "Rising Stars – Securities," honoring lawyers under the age of 40 whose professional accomplishments transcend their age. Bunch also plays a prolific role in empowering students and cultivating educational opportunity – nationally and globally. He is the co-founder and chairman of Global Playground, Inc., a nonprofit that builds schools and other educational infrastructure in the developing world, and he serves or has served on the boards of multiple other education nonprofits. Bunch was appointed in 2016 and again in 2020 to the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary, by the Governor of Virginia. He currently serves on the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Committee on Institutional Advancement. Bunch is also a leader in the Washington, D.C. LGBTQ+ community. He has acted as amicus curie counsel to Equality Virginia, the Commonwealth's leading advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ equality, in filing amicus briefs in support of transgender students in Virginia public schools. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Bunch graduated with a B.A., summa cum laude, from the College of William & Mary, earned an Ed.M. from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, and received his J.D. from William & Mary Law School, where he was a recipient of the Benjamin Rush Medal in 2006. In 2011, he was awarded William & Mary Law School's inaugural W. Taylor Reveley III award, recognizing alumni who have demonstrated a sustained commitment to public service. Bunch is a native of Augusta County, in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

Carol Leslie Hamilton, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Carol Leslie Hamilton is an attorney in Beverly Hills, California, with experience in private practice and public service. She serves on the UC Hastings College of Law Board of Governors and the boards of the Alliance for Justice and the Renewables 100 Policy Institute. Nominated by President Obama as the U.S. Alternate Representative to the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly, she served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Mission focusing on the issues of international security, nuclear nonproliferation, disarmament, and human rights. Nominated twice by Secretaries of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton as Commissioner of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, she launched U.S. participation in the UN Literacy Decade. Her efforts included presentation of the U.S. Right to Literacy Scroll at UNESCO in Paris. Hamilton was a Legal Observer on the Guantánamo Task Force for the Pacific Council on International Policy. She monitored legal proceedings at the U.S. Military Commission for 9/11 defendants and contributed to a published report on the proceedings. Hamilton served on the legal team litigating the 2000 presidential election on behalf of former Vice President Albert Gore. She participated in drafting the Motion for Recount in Broward County, the sole Florida county where all ballots were manually recounted and included in certified election results. She has also served as Vice President and Director of Legal and Business Affairs at RKO Pictures. She is a former partner at Bourhis & Hamilton, a firm specializing in bad faith litigation against multinational insurance companies. Her work benefitted policy holders and improved consumer insurance laws. She is co-author of a book and articles on insurance law. Hamilton co-founded the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, which established a permanent Tibet Bureau at the United Nations in Geneva. She worked to implement the Tibetan US Resettlement Project that resettled 1,000 Tibetan immigrants in U.S. communities. She co-founded the Legal Clinic for Battered Women, one of the first for victims of domestic abuse in the U.S. She lives in Beverly Hills with her husband, David Khon.

Andrew Weinstein, Nominee for Public Delegate of the United States to the 77th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations

Andrew J. Weinstein is the Managing Attorney at the Weinstein Law Firm, a position he has held since 1996. Focusing his practice on civil litigation, Weinstein has handled thousands of cases, receiving recognition for professional performance and ethical integrity along the way. He is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell and was named one of the state's Legal Elite by Florida Trend magazine. Weinstein has been active in state, local, and national government. In 2013, he was appointed to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities by President Obama, where he led the effort to expand the administration's Turnaround Arts program to Broward County public schools, and in 2016 he helped organize and participated in a delegation to Cuba as part of the administration's efforts to improve U.S.-Cuba relations. Weinstein also served as a key liaison to the Jewish community during the rollout of the Iran Nuclear Deal. He joined White House meetings with President Obama and his foreign policy team and helped coordinate events with then-Vice President Biden, engaging stakeholders to win over a crucial constituency. In 2017, President Obama appointed Weinstein to the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Weinstein served on the Finance Committee for President Obama, was the Finance Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, and is the Chair of the Lawyers Council for the Democratic National Committee. During President Biden's campaign, Weinstein was a member of the National Finance Committee, the Arts Policy Committee, the Gun Safety Policy Committee, the Florida Leadership Council, and was a Co-Chair of Lawyers for Biden. Weinstein also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Florida Justice Association and the Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice. Weinstein is particularly proud of his work advocating for gun safety reforms with victims and activists in his hometown of Parkland and across the country. Weinstein holds a B.A. from the University of Central Florida and a Juris Doctorate from the NSU Shepard Broad College of Law. He resides in Florida with his wife Anne and has two children.