[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 44 (Thursday, March 12, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S3066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         BUSINESS OF THE SENATE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am glad Republican Senators abandoned 
their efforts to filibuster the nomination of the Deputy Attorney 
General. It was only after the majority leader filed for cloture that 
the Republican caucus came to the conclusion that such a maneuver was 
futile. I thank the majority leader for scheduling the debate and votes 
for the President's nominees to serve as Deputy Attorney General and 
Associate Attorney General. They have now been confirmed by the Senate.
  The Republican minority, nonetheless, insisted on 7 hours of debate 
on the Deputy Attorney General nomination this week before allowing the 
vote. That was longer than the debate they demanded on the nomination 
of the Attorney General of the United States. I spoke yesterday to open 
the debate, as did the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, Senator Specter, who also supported the nomination. We both 
spoke, again, today to close the debate.
  I followed the debate, and have responded by way of additional 
statements to correct the record on the Deputy Attorney General 
nominee.
  Now I would like us to take a step back and see what has occurred. 
Yesterday, the Republican minority insisted on 5 hours of debate on the 
Ogden nomination. In fact, the Republican opposition devoted less than 
1 hour to comment about the Ogden nomination. The rest of their time 
they consumed with criticism of the President's budget and policy 
initiatives to help the country recover from the economic crisis. I am 
not saying that the budget discussion is unimportant. I may not agree 
with their criticism, but the budget is certainly a topic about which 
Senators may wish to make statements. My point is that after delaying 
debate on the President's nomination for the No. 2 official at the 
Justice Department for 2 weeks, and demanding extended debate, they 
failed to use the time to discuss the nomination. Instead, they talked 
about unrelated issues.
  In fact, they were so uninterested in debating the nomination that by 
the time Senator Inhofe came to the floor, all Republican time had been 
used on other discussions. As a courtesy, we made available time from 
the Democratic side that should have been used by supporters of the 
nomination. We accommodated the Senator from Oklahoma so that he could 
speak against the nomination.
  Today, an additional 2 hours was demanded by the Republican majority 
to debate the Ogden nomination further before they would allow a vote. 
Of course, those Republicans who opposed the nomination used not 1 
minute of time to debate it today--not 1 minute.
  Indeed, of the time that the Republican minority insisted was 
necessary before the Senate could vote on the Ogden nomination, more 
than an hour was wasted in quorum calls with no speakers at all 
yesterday and approximately 1 hour was spent by opposition speakers--
not 7 hours, not 3 hours, barely 1 hour. The Ogden debate could easily 
have been handled with the opposition taking an hour or an hour and 
one-half to speak.
  I wish instead of this campaign to delay and obstruct the President, 
the minority would work with us on the consideration of matters of 
critical importance to the American people. I will note just one 
current example. This morning, the New York Times had a front-page 
story about financial frauds. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee 
reported an antifraud matter to the Senate. The Leahy-Grassley Fraud 
Enforcement and Recovery Act, S.386, needs to be considered without 
delay. It is an important initiative to confront the fraud that has 
contributed to the economic and financial crisis we face, and to 
protect against the diversion of the Federal efforts to recover from 
this downturn.
  As the New York Times story demonstrates, improving our efforts to 
hold those accountable for the mortgage and financial frauds that have 
contributed to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is 
most timely. We need to do better, and our bipartisan bill, which has 
the support of the U.S. Department of Justice, can make a difference. 
In addition to Senator Grassley, I thank Senator Kaufman, Senator 
Klobuchar, Senator Schumer, and Senator Shelby for working with us and 
for their interest in this important measure.
  Our legislation is designed to reinvigorate our capacity to 
investigate and prosecute the kinds of frauds that have undermined our 
economy and hurt so many hard-working Americans. It provides the 
resources and tools needed for law enforcement to aggressively enforce 
and prosecute fraud in connection with bailout and recovery efforts. It 
authorizes $245 million a year over the next couple of years for fraud 
prosecutors and investigators. With this funding, the FBI can double 
the number of mortgage fraud taskforces nationwide, and target the 
hardest hit areas. It includes resources for our U.S. Attorneys' 
Offices, as well as the Secret Service, the HUD Inspector General's 
Office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. It includes important 
improvements to our fraud and money laundering statutes to strengthen 
prosecutors' ability to confront fraud in mortgage lending practices, 
to protect TARP funds, and to uncover fraudulent schemes involving 
commodities futures, options and derivatives as well as making sure the 
Government can recover the ill-gotten proceeds from crime.
  Our bipartisan measure was favorably reported on a voice vote by the 
Judiciary Committee on March 5. I have been trying to get a time 
agreement to consider the measure ever since. The Senate should 
consider and pass it without delay. We can help make a difference for 
all Americans. Instead of wasting our time in quorum calls when no one 
is speaking, or demanding multiple hours of debates on nominations that 
can be discussed in much less time before being confirmed, let us work 
on matters that will help get us out of the economic ditch that we have 
inherited from the policies of the last administration, and let us 
begin to work together on behalf of the American people.

                          ____________________