XOM Exxon Mobil Corp

By Felicia Schwartz 

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state, sending him to the State Department as career officials mount a formal protest against President Donald Trump's immigration initiative and as the U.S. faces a complex set of foreign-policy challenges.

Mr. Tillerson won over skeptical Republicans, including Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Marco Rubio of Florida, but continued to face Democratic opposition. He was confirmed on a 56-43 vote.

Senators had voiced concern about the close relationship Mr. Tillerson forged with Russian President Vladimir Putin while he was at Exxon, and his unwillingness in testimony to recommit the U.S. to Russia sanctions. Democrats also were critical of his views on climate change.

Mr. Tillerson's confirmation was the most contentious in at least 50 years, coming with the support of only three Democrats -- Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D., N.D.), Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.), Mark Warner (D., Va.) -- and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats. The second closest vote in recent memory, by comparison, was for Condoleezza Rice, who won confirmation 85-13 in 2005.

Now, the former business executive, 64 years old, will have to move quickly to get senior staff in place, calm hundreds of career officials who have formally registered their concerns about Mr. Trump's immigration and refugee policies and carve out a place for himself in the Trump administration's foreign-policy apparatus, which so far has been dominated by White House aides Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.

The immediate challenges Mr. Tillerson will confront when he enters office, said current and former U.S. officials working on foreign policy, include addressing the rift with Mexico over Mr. Trump's plans to build a border wall; implementing and dealing with a temporary immigration ban on seven Muslim-majority countries intended to protect against terrorism; and possibly implementing Mr. Trump's suggestion to relocate the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

In the longer term, Mr. Tillerson will be asked to make good on Mr. Trump's pledge to drastically recast U.S. relations with major global powers Russia and China, to help intensify the war against the terrorist organization Islamic State and revisit the landmark nuclear agreement the Obama administration forged with Iran in 2015.

Mr. Tillerson has begun the process of setting up his own State Department team.

He is expected to name Margaret Peterlin, a former Navy officer and senior official at the Patent and Trademark Office during the Bush administration, as his chief of staff, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Paula Dobriansky, a former senior State Department official in the George W. Bush administration, and Elliott Abrams, a former National Security Council aide to Mr. Bush, are among candidates to be deputy secretary of state.

Michael Dougherty, who has worked at Raytheon Co. and at the Department of Homeland Security, is expected to be nominated to take the helm of the Consular Affairs Bureau. Rob Wasinger, a former Republican Virginia congressional candidate in 2014, is expected to take on a senior role, the people familiar with the deliberations said.

Jennifer Hazelton, who led Mr. Trump's campaign communications in Georgia and had previously worked at CNN and Fox before moving to politics, is expected to be Mr. Tillerson's press secretary.

The staffing decisions aren't yet final and could change, the people familiar with the deliberations said.

The 40-year Exxon veteran has been at the State Department several times for briefings over the past two weeks and had lunch with Mr. Trump on Wednesday.

Republicans welcomed Mr. Tillerson's confirmation and said they looked forward to working with him.

"Mr. Tillerson led a global enterprise with 75,000 employees, possesses deep relationships around the world and understands the critical role of U.S. leadership. He has expressed a commitment to defend American values and to restore U.S. credibility by strengthening old alliances and building new ones," said Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Most Democrats said they remained unconvinced Mr. Tillerson was right for the job, citing concerns about his record at Exxon and his ties to Russia.

"Mr. Tillerson's lack of transparency, history of working against our national interests, close ties to Russia and indifference to Israel's future make him unfit to serve as the secretary of state," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.).

Differences between career State Department employees and the White House over national policies isn't new, said current and former U.S. officials. A number of American diplomats quit their posts following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 to protest the George W. Bush administration's Middle East policy. But the numbers were low, the officials said, and overall morale at the State Department eventually rebounded.

Former officials said Mr. Tillerson must demonstrate that he speaks for Mr. Trump if he is going to successfully navigate the State Department and dealings with foreign officials, a complicated task given Mr. Trump's skepticism toward U.S. foreign-policy norms.

"If he wants to succeed at State, he's got to be White House man at the State Department," said Aaron David Miller, a long time State Department official who advised Republicans and Democrats and is now at the Wilson Center.

--Jay Solomon contributed to this article.

Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2017 17:27 ET (22:27 GMT)

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