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Opening Statement for Second Day of Public Hearings from Yovanovitch Whistleblower Complaint on Ukraine (Kelly Smith, comp.) 1 (11/15/2019)

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AS PREPARED  FOR DELIVERY


      Opening  Statement of Marie L. Yovanovitch to the
   House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on
                        Intelligence

                    November   15, 2019


     Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Nunes, and other Members
of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to start with this
statement, to reintroduce myself to the  Committee  and  to
highlight parts of my biography and experience.
     My Background
     I come before you as an American citizen, who has devoted
the majority of my life, 33 years, to service to the country that all
of us love. Like my colleagues, I entered the Foreign Service
understanding that my job was to implement the foreign policy
interests of this nation, as defined by the President and Congress,
and to do so regardless of which person or party was in power. I
had no agenda other than to pursue our stated foreign policy goals.
     My  service is an expression of gratitude for all that this
country has given my family and me.  My  late parents did not
have the good fortune to come of age in a free society. My father
fled the Soviets before ultimately finding refuge in the United
States.  My   mother's family escaped  the USSR   after the
Bolshevik revolution, and she grew up stateless in Nazi Germany,
before eventually making her way to the United States. Their
personal histories-my  personal history-gave me  both deep