[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 12, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S15227]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EXECUTIVE BRANCH NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, with only a few legislative days left to us 
before the Christmas holidays and the end of this session, we continue 
seeking to make progress in filling the many U.S. attorney vacancies 
across our Nation and the high-level vacancies at the Justice 
Department.
  Today, the Senate will confirm three more nominations for U.S. 
attorneys, including the nominations of Gregory A. Brower to the 
District of Nevada, Diane J. Humetewa to the District of Arizona, and 
Edmund A. Booth, Jr. to the Southern District of Georgia. Two of the 
three nominations--Ms. Humetewa and Mr. Brower--are replacements for 
two of the outstanding U.S. attorneys who were fired almost a year ago 
as part of the ill-advised, partisan plan to replace well-performing 
U.S. attorneys. I thank the home State Senators--Senators Reid, Ensign, 
McCain, Kyl, Chambliss, and Isakson--for their consideration of these 
nominations.
  We also are proceeding to fill one of the many high-level vacancies 
at the Department of Justice by confirming the nomination of Ronald Jay 
Tenpas to be Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural 
Resources Division at the Justice Department. I thank Senator 
Whitehouse for chairing his hearing.
  Over the course of this year, the Judiciary Committee's investigation 
into the firing of United States attorneys and the influence of White 
House political operatives on Federal law enforcement has led to 
resignations at the highest ranks in the Justice Department, including 
the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate 
Attorney General, the chiefs of staff of the Attorney General and 
Deputy Attorney General, the White House liaison, as well as several 
White House officials.
  When I met with Michael Mukasey before his confirmation hearing to 
replace Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, I emphasized the need to 
fill the many vacancies that remain at the Department with nominees who 
will restore the independence of Federal law enforcement.
  In the days before the congressional Thanksgiving recess, the White 
House made a show of releasing the names of a score of nominees for 
high-level positions in the Department of Justice. Yet, that 
announcement was mostly bluster. We received the nomination of Mark 
Filip to be the Deputy Attorney General nearly 3 full weeks after the 
announcement was made. Had the nomination been sent immediately 
following the White House announcement, the committee could have 
considered Judge Filip's nomination in early December. As it was, after 
a 3-week White House delay in sending up the nomination, I immediately 
set a hearing on his nomination for next Wednesday, December 19, once 
the Senate received it.
  Nearly a month after the White House announced its intent to nominate 
Kevin O'Connor be the Associate Attorney General and Gregory Katsas to 
be the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Division at the 
Department of Justice we have only now received those nominations. We 
have not yet been provided with their background materials to allow us 
to review them. Because of the administration's delay, we will not be 
able to consider those nominations before the end of the year.
  The Judiciary Committee has reported 20 executive nominations this 
year. To make further progress, the committee is holding back-to-back 
hearings next week, before the Christmas break, on six nominations for 
senior leadership posts at the Justice Department and Executive Office 
of the President, including the recently received nomination to be 
Deputy Attorney General.
  There are now 23 districts with acting or interim U.S. attorneys 
instead of Senate-confirmed, presidentially appointed U.S. attorneys, 
over a quarter of all districts. Many of these vacancies, including 
several for which we consider nominations today, could have been filled 
a year ago had the White House worked with the Senate.
  In the course of the committee's investigation into the unprecedented 
mass firing of U.S. attorneys by the President who appointed them, we 
uncovered an effort by officials at the White House and the Justice 
Department to exploit an obscure provision enacted during the Patriot 
Act reauthorization to do an end-run around the Senate's constitutional 
duty to confirm U.S. attorneys. The result was the firing of well-
performing U.S. attorneys for not bending to the political will of 
political operatives at the White House.
  When it comes to the United States Department of Justice and to the 
U.S. attorneys in our home States, Senators have a say and a stake in 
ensuring fairness and independence in order to insulate the Federal law 
enforcement function from untoward political influence. That is why the 
law and the practice has always been that these appointments require 
Senate confirmation. The advice and consent check on the appointment 
power for U.S. attorneys is a critical function of the Senate.
  I had hoped when the Senate unanimously voted to close the loophole 
created by the Patriot Act, passing S.214, the ``Preserving United 
States Attorneys Independence Act of 2007,'' it would send a clear 
message to the administration to make nominations that could receive 
Senate support and begin to restore an important check on the partisan 
influence in law enforcement.
  Yet, even as we closed one loophole, the administration has been 
exploiting others to continue to avoid coming to the Senate. Under the 
guidance of an erroneous opinion of the Justice Department's Office of 
Legal Counsel, the administration has been naming acting U.S. attorneys 
and interim U.S. attorneys sequentially. They have used this misguided 
approach to put somebody in place for 330 days without the advice and 
consent of the Senate. This approach runs afoul of congressional intent 
and the law.
  We will continue to make progress when we can, and I will continue to 
urge the White House to send the Senate consensus, qualified nominees. 
I congratulate the nominees and their families on their confirmation 
today.




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