Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs

The assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs is the head of the Bureau of Legislative Affairs within the United States Department of State.

United States Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
Seal of the United States Department of State
Flag of an assistant secretary of state
Incumbent Philip Laidlaw Acting  since December 20, 2024
Reports to	The secretary of state
Nominator	The president of the United States
Inaugural holder	Dean Acheson[1]
Formation	1944
Website	Official Website

List of assistant secretaries of state for legislative affairs

#	Name	Assumed office	Left office	President served under
1	Dean Acheson	December 20, 1944	August 15, 1945	Franklin D. Roosevelt
2	Ernest A. Gross	March 4, 1949	October 13, 1949	Harry S. Truman
3	Jack K. McFall	October 15, 1949	September 9, 1952
4	Thruston Ballard Morton	January 30, 1953	February 29, 1956	Dwight D. Eisenhower
5	Robert C. Hill	March 9, 1956	June 26, 1957
6	William B. Macomber Jr.	October 21, 1957	February 27, 1961
7	Brooks Hays	February 28, 1961	December 3, 1961	John F. Kennedy
8	Fred Dutton	December 4, 1961[2]	July 27, 1964	John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
9	Douglas MacArthur II	March 14, 1965	March 6, 1967	Lyndon B. Johnson
10	William B. Macomber Jr.	March 7, 1967	October 2, 1969
11	David Manker Abshire	April 20, 1970	January 8, 1973	Richard Nixon
12	Marshall Wright	May 29, 1973	February 2, 1974
13	A. Linwood Holton	February 28, 1974	January 31, 1975	Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford
14	Robert J. McCloskey	February 21, 1975	September 10, 1976	Gerald Ford
15	Douglas J. Bennet	March 18, 1977	August 2, 1979	Jimmy Carter
16	J. Brian Atwood	August 3, 1979	January 14, 1981
17	Richard M. Fairbanks	March 6, 1981	January 26, 1982	Ronald Reagan
18	Powell A. Moore	February 8, 1982	August 5, 1983
19	W. Tapley Bennett Jr.	November 17, 1983	January 4, 1985
20	William L. Ball	April 2, 1985	February 28, 1986
21	J. Edward Fox	June 18, 1986	February 21, 1989
22	Janet G. Mullins	March 2, 1989	August 23, 1992	George H. W. Bush
23	Wendy Sherman	May 12, 1993	March 29, 1996	Bill Clinton
24	Barbara Mills Larkin	July 19, 1996	January 19, 2001
25	Paul Vincent Kelly	June 1, 2001	January 24, 2005	George W. Bush
26	Jeffrey Bergner	November 9, 2005	June 27, 2008
27	Matthew A. Reynolds	October 7, 2008	January 20, 2009
28	Richard Verma	April 6, 2009	March 14, 2011	Barack Obama
-	Joseph Macmanus (acting)	March 14, 2011	August 4, 2011
29	David S. Adams	August 4, 2011	June 18, 2013
30	Julia Frifield	October 21, 2013	January 20, 2017
-	Joseph Macmanus (acting)	January 20, 2017	December 20, 2017	Donald Trump
31	Mary Kirtley Waters	December 20, 2017	August 31, 2018
32	Mary Elizabeth Taylor	October 1, 2018	June 18, 2020
-	Ryan M. Kaldahl (acting)	July 2020	January 20, 2021
-	Naz Durakoğlu (acting)	January 20, 2021	July 22, 2022	Joe Biden
33	Naz Durakoğlu	July 22, 2022	December 20, 2024
-	Philip Laidlaw (acting)	December 20, 2024	Incumbent	Joe Biden Donald Trump