Branstad admits to butterflies before Senate hearing

WASHINGTON - Gov. Terry Branstad admitted to being nervous before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last week on his nomination to be ambassador to China.

Having his, wife, two sons, past and present staff members and friends filling the Senate hearing room behind him helped calm his nerves, Branstad said Monday.

The Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to recommend confirmation of President Donald Trump's nomination of Branstad. If approved, the full Senate could act on Branstad's nomination next week, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley.

'I had a few butterflies going into the hearing,” Branstad said at his weekly news conference at the Iowa Capitol. He had watched the Senate hearing on the nominations of Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state and Neil Gorsuch to be a Supreme Court justice.

'Fortunately, mine wasn't quite as tough as theirs,” he said about his two-hour session in front of the committee.

He believes it helped to have met with nearly all 21 members of the committee before the hearing.

It also helped to have a trial run in the Dirksen Senate Office Building hearing room the day before his hearing.

'They turned on the bright lights and I got a chance to kind of practice my opening statement,” Branstad said.

If his nomination is approved by the full Senate, Branstad will resign as governor and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds will become governor. The timing of that transition is unknown.

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