Senate confirms Smith as AID chief

The Senate confirmed Gayle Smith as administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development on a 79-7 roll call, seven months after she was nominated by President Obama, said The Hill newspaper. AID runs U.S. foreign aid programs, including Feed the Future, the administration’s trademark agricultural development program. The vote was delayed by partisan fighting over unrelated issues, said The Hill. It said there was a bipartisan consensus in support of the nomination and a desire to have strong leadership at AID as it deals with a humanitarian crisis in Syria. Smith succeeds Rajiv Shah, who was an agriculture undersecretary before he moved to AID in 2010.

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