by Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden Friday appointed former state Rep. Calvin Smyre to an independent board that advises the White House on intelligence issues.
Smyre, a Democrat from Columbus who served for 48 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, will join the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which offers the president objective, expert advice on the conduct of U.S. intelligence.
During decades in the General Assembly, Smyre rose to become the “dean” of the House, serving as chairman of the House Rules Committee and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He played a key role in making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday, replacing the 1950s-era state flag and its Confederate battle symbol with a new state flag, passing a hate crime law, and repealing Georgia’s 19th-century citizens arrest law.
Biden nominated Smyre in 2021 to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republican and switched it to ambassador to the Bahamas the following year. However, the U.S. Senate thus far has declined to confirm the nomination.
Last year, the State Department appointed Smyre to serve as the United States’ representative to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Smyre retired in 2014 from an executive position with Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State University and an honorary doctorate from the Morehouse School of Medicine.
