Trump Is Said to Pick Dobriansky for Senior State Department Job

(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration plans to nominate Paula Dobriansky, a senior diplomatic official under President George W. Bush, to the top policy job at the State Department, according to three people familiar with the decision.

Dobriansky, a former special envoy for Northern Ireland and undersecretary of state for global affairs, will replace career diplomat Thomas Shannon, who announced his retirement earlier this year, according to the people, who asked not to be identified ahead of the public announcement.

The decision underscores how quickly President Donald Trump and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, his nominee to be secretary of state, are moving to fill jobs at the State Department even with Pompeo still awaiting Senate confirmation. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved Pompeo’s nomination on a party-line vote April 23, and he’s expected to be confirmed by the Senate this week.

The State Department referred questions on Dobriansky to the White House, and officials there declined to comment. Dobriansky, a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, didn’t return an email seeking comment. She had also been considered for a senior job under former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, whom Trump fired last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Wadhams in Washington at nwadhams@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert

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