[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 18, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7889-S7890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity just to say 
a few words. I thank Senator Reid for his leadership and effort to move 
the legislation that has been moving forward pretty well so far. I 
think this side has certainly been cooperative. We have not had 
anything like the 100-plus amendments that we had when this side was 
trying to move bills last year. We have been very cooperative.
  There is a real concern that this administration, as it gets itself 
into office facing all kinds of challenges, needs to get its people on 
board as soon as possible. We are now entering the seventh month of 
President Bush's administration. Maybe 15 percent of his term has been 
used up, and we now have 150 nominees who have not been confirmed. 
Maybe there will be some objections to some and they will need some 
scrutiny, but most of them are nominations which, if called up and are 
voted upon on the floor, are going to pass virtually unanimously.
  These are good men and women who have left their jobs and careers. 
They are committed to public service for a period of time. We need to 
give them an up-or-down vote.
  I think we need to set a higher standard than we have done before. I 
do not object to a Senator who has a concern over a nominee to raise 
that concern, to highlight the problem, to ask questions, even delay a 
nominee. But when we have a nominee nobody objects to--and this is true 
of the overwhelming majority of the 150 or so--we believe they ought to 
be moving forward promptly. That is why we are at loggerheads a little 
bit here. There are some strong feelings that we need a good, firm 
commitment we will move these nominations before we leave in August for 
a month away because then we will come back with all kinds of things 
and it will be September with appropriations bills and there will be

[[Page S7890]]

other issues and it will be harder than ever to get up nominations. 
Even more of them will be in the system by then, having been submitted 
by the President. It is going to be a big problem if we do not move 
promptly.
  I think this is a reasonable request. I know Senator Reid, Senator 
Daschle and others, have indicated they will make some progress, but we 
are not confident we have made a strong enough determination and 
commitment at this point in time to ensure those nominees move forward. 
I hope maybe this cloture motion can be vitiated and we will be able to 
reach accord and move forward, but I just want to say for the record 
that the matter is very serious. We have probably taken too long to 
move nominations as we go forward.
  I think the ones that have little or no objection certainly ought to 
be moved forward.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, my friend from Alabama is right. There is no 
question that the process is very cumbersome. I hope in the future that 
we can maintain our record. We have a clear conscious. We cleared 54 
last week. It was really the first week that we were in power because 
committees were just organized. With the leadership having changed, it 
slowed things down a little bit. But there wasn't much the Republicans 
could have done while they controlled the Senate because of the funnel 
that just doesn't allow these nominations to get here.
  We have worked diligently today. Our staff worked. I told one of 
Senator Lott's staff people just a minute ago that I spoke to Senator 
Biden earlier today, and we had told him that prior to the August 
recess we would clear all of those that already had hearings. We 
received a call back from Senator Biden's staff, and he told us that he 
spoke to Senator Biden and Senator Biden hopes to clear as many as 20 
from the Foreign Relations Committee prior to the recess.
  We recognize it is an embarrassment to this country--as powerful as 
the United States is--not having an Ambassador in a country. That is 
something that is good for the country. It is not because of Democrats 
or Republicans.
  The Senator from Alabama is absolutely right. For the vast majority 
of these people, there is no problem at all. We just have to get them 
through the hearing process, which is sometimes cumbersome.
  If there is somebody who has some objections, we can arrange 
something just like Graham. We are going to debate the Graham 
nomination when we finish the energy and water bill. There is time. I 
wanted to finish it tonight.
  I wish right now that we could be doing this and Graham could look 
forward tomorrow morning to a very early vote and we could complete 
that matter. It is a contentious issue, but it is something we need to 
do. We can do that on others.
  I have worked diligently. A lot of times people criticize me on my 
side because I work too closely with Senator Lott on moving some of 
these bills. Last year, prior to the August recess, we did eight 
appropriations bills. Republicans controlled the Senate. But we moved 
eight appropriations bills. That was hard, hard work. But we did it. 
The Senator is right. A lot of times there were lots of amendments on 
those bills. But we worked our way through them.
  I hope the Senator, who has a fine legal mind, is very concerned 
about what is happening. He wants his President to have all the help he 
needs. I hope the President gets all of his subcabinet people approved 
real soon.
  I listened to an account on public radio just a short time ago. It is 
absolutely correct. It said what I already know--that President Bush 
will be lucky to have his subcabinet people approved by February. That 
is not because of partisan politics. It is because a system has 
developed in this country where we have vetting by the White House, by 
the Justice Department, by the agency in which the person is going to 
serve. It is too cumbersome and too burdensome.
  Why do we need to have all this process for Dan Coats? Dan Coats 
served in the Senate up until a couple of years ago. He will be 
confirmed easily. Everybody likes him. It seems to me that the 
administration--Democratic and Republican administrations--should just 
have a little more courage, and say: We don't need Dan Coats to be 
vetted--that is just how I feel about it--by anyone. Let's just bring 
him down here, and he will stand or fall on how we feel about Dan 
Coats.
  I hope in the morning that the Senator from Alabama and his 
colleagues who are concerned about this will look at our good-faith 
efforts. We are trying to do everything that we can. As I said, we were 
willing to clear 9 or 10 people tonight. For reasons that the Senator 
understands, we decided not to do that.
  We haven't gotten much credit for the 54 we confirmed. We want to 
make sure that you feel good about what we are trying to do. There are 
a number of people as we proceed who may have some problems. We will 
identify those and set a special time for having some debate on the 
floor so we can have an up-or-down vote on them. We are not going to 
hold them up just to be holding them up.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank the Senator for his comments. We 
have made some progress. There were some objections last week and some 
concerns about not moving. The Democratic leadership moved 50 or more. 
But we still have 150, and we are coming up on the August recess. That 
is all we are saying.
  Mr. REID. One-hundred and sixty.
  Mr. SESSIONS. If we don't get moving now, we are not going to be able 
to finish by August with many confirmed. That will get us even further 
behind. We are going to have a flood of nominations that haven't even 
come in yet. I am frustrated, as a former U.S. attorney, that no U.S. 
attorney nominees have even been made. I guess the President deserves 
blame for that. Maybe the FBI is working the other nominees and can't 
get the backgrounds on them, or whatever. The Senator from Nevada said 
perhaps they are terrified that they will nominate somebody who will 
have a black mark on their record and the administration will be 
embarrassed.
  But I think all we are asking is let's give an intensity of interest 
to it. Let's give it our best shot before we recess in August to make 
sure that the backgrounds have been done on every one of these nominees 
so they are ready to go forward. The committees have to have some 
hearings. I know they are busy. We have been having hearings in the 
Judiciary on the FBI and DEA nominees, but we haven't had but three 
judges come out of Judiciary in 7 months, and none have been confirmed. 
We have to speed up a little bit. That is what we are asking.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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