President Trump’s pick for the second highest-ranking post at the State Department told a Senate panel Wednesday that any department employees who testify in the ongoing House impeachment inquiry will not face punishment for cooperating.

The department has made it “clear” that “there will not be disciplinary action by the State Department against any of our employees who are testifying under subpoena in front of the House inquiry commission,” Stephen E. Biegun told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at his confirmation hearing to be deputy secretary of state Wednesday

Despite a recent inspector general report released this year that criticized the department for pressuring staffers for expressing political disloyalty, Mr. Biegun said the department will instead provide assistance and resources to employees who are called to testify in the inquiry.

The department will continue to provide legal and financial resources to those who have been called upon, and has offered travel orders for officers stationed outside the U.S. to return so they can “meet their responsibilities in front of Congress,” he added.

Mr. Biegun’s testimony came even as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry, despite instructions from the department not to appear. Other State Department officials, including a number of Foreign Service officers, have talked with the committee despite the administration’s criticisms of the impeachment drive.

“All of us should be guided by the professional requirements as leaders in the Department of State, which precludes us from making political considerations on personnel issues or assignments,” Mr. Biegun said.

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