[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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