[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 68 (Thursday, May 17, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S5102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S5102]]
                   DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I come to the Senate to report on the 
progress the Judiciary Committee is making with respect to a number of 
administration nominations to the Department of Justice.
  Over the last several weeks, I have been working to reach an 
understanding on how this committee will handle nominations. A number 
of procedural and substantive issues have been raised in these regards 
for both Executive and Judicial Branch nominations. The Democratic 
members have sought to work out arrangements and understandings so that 
all members of the committee would know what our rules are, know what 
our practices and procedures will be, and understand how this committee 
will approach our important responsibilities with respect to 
nominations.
  Over the last 2 weeks the chairman's insistence that the committee 
proceed with nominations before those practices and procedures had been 
agreed upon has lead to public reference to outstanding issues that we 
should have resolved first. I always regret when we are not able to 
work out matters through reason and cooperation. I do not believe it 
was appropriate for Republican members of this committee to deride 
Democratic members as acting ``irresponsibly'' or ``despicably'' or 
``in breach of their constitutional duties.'' I know that it was not 
helpful.
  Nonetheless, I was proud of the Democratic members of this committee 
when we jointly sent our May 4 letter to the chairman and provided a 
way out of the impasse in spite of the name calling. A few days later 
the chairman responded with language that reflected our respectful tone 
and for which I thank him.
  While I disagree with much of what the chairman argues and asserts in 
his letter, I appreciate that he has now indicated that with respect to 
judicial nominations, he ``intends to be fully respectful of 
[Democratic Senators'] views and will assist in any way to ensure that 
you and our other Senate colleagues receive real, meaningful 
consultation by the White House on judicial nominees.'' I appreciate 
that in his letter he writes that he ``respect[s our] views and efforts 
in ensuring [we] will be appropriately consulted in a meaningful manner 
on nominees to vacancies in [our] home states.''
  For the last several weeks, we have also been seeking to resolve 
concerns about how this committee handles certain confidential 
information about nominations, information that may reflect on their 
fitness for office, and may be relevant to how Senators in this 
committee vote on reporting nominations to the Senate, as well as how 
Senators vote on confirmations. Those concerns have also been pending 
for several weeks now without resolution. Those concerns are what 
prompted our request for an executive session in accordance with Rule 
26.5 of the Standing Rules of the Senate so that we could fully discuss 
these very important matters in accordance with the confidentiality 
rules that bind us.
  Those concerns made it inappropriate to proceed on certain matters 
over the last few weeks. Although our Republican colleagues knew about 
our concerns, they nonetheless berated us without any acknowledgment 
that those open issues, which affect executive as well as judicial 
nominations, were still unresolved. That, too, was most unfortunate.
  Over the last several days I have also reached out to the Bush 
administration to work with us on ways to resolve these concerns. Those 
outreach efforts may provide the opportunity to reach a mutually 
acceptable resolution of these matters. I hope so.
  In light of the cooperation we began receiving from the 
administration last week, we were able to proceed to report and confirm 
Larry Thompson to be the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of 
Justice and Dan Bryant to be the Assistant Attorney General for the 
Office of Legislative Affairs. I understand that they were sworn in 
last Friday and, again, congratulate them and their families.
  I have spoken to Attorney General Ashcroft about the staffing needs 
of the Department of Justice and assured him that I will do my part. 
For those with short memories, I note that Attorney General Ashcroft 
was confirmed 6 weeks before Attorney General Reno's confirmation in 
the last administration and the Deputy Attorney General was confirmed 3 
weeks before his counterpart in the last administration. Assistant 
Attorney General Bryant was confirmed 7 weeks before his counterpart in 
the previous administration.
  The committee is moving expeditiously on the administration's 
nominations to the Department of Justice. Indeed, we are ahead of the 
confirmations schedule of the Clinton administration for each and every 
nominee confirmed to date.
  The Clinton administration's Assistant Attorney General to head the 
Criminal Division was not confirmed until November. The committee 
proceeded to consider the Chertoff nomination this week, after a 
hearing last week. That is extremely expeditious. Indeed, in spite of 
Mr. Chertoff's role as the lead counsel to the Republicans in the 
Whitewater investigation, an extremely partisan effort, we are moving 
ahead. Mr. Chertoff explained at his hearing that he understands the 
role of the head of the Criminal Division and will carry out those 
functions without regard to politics or partisanship. I believe him and 
look forward to working with him.
  The Assistant Attorney General to head the Office for Policy 
Development in the last administration was not confirmed until August, 
95 days after her nomination. Professor Dinh did not return his 
responses to written questions until this Tuesday. He was precipitously 
placed on the committee agenda last week. Once his responses were in, 
he was considered and reported out this week, months ahead of his 
counterpart in the last administration.
  While we consider the current nominations, the many dedicated 
employees at the Department of Justice continue to work, do their jobs, 
and serve the public. Many of the comments made over the last several 
weeks disparage their fine work and commitment. I see no evidence that 
the Department is ``floundering'' or that the dedicated public servants 
who staff the Department and the United States Attorneys' offices 
around the country have stopped doing their jobs.
  The chairman has noticed another hearing for Department of Justice 
nominees next week, although he has yet to specify who will be included 
at that hearing, which is less than a week away. Democrats on the 
committee are continuing to work expeditiously and cooperatively to 
consider, report and confirm the vast majority of the President's 
nominations to the Department of Justice.

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