[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 101 (Wednesday, July 8, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H7746]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 CZARS

  (Mr. KINGSTON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. KINGSTON. You know, we have all heard about czarist Russia. Over 
a 300-year period of time, Russia had 18 czars. Now, America has had 
czars, too--Ronald Reagan had one, George Bush had one, Bill Clinton 
had three, George W. Bush had four. This Presidency has 27--and maybe 
even as high as 33, nobody even knows--czars for all kinds of things 
like compensation, regulatory reform, terrorism, Guantanamo Bay, 
automobiles.
  And who are these people? Well, we don't know, because even though 
the Constitution calls for the U.S. Senate to approve powerful people 
in powerful positions--and, indeed, they vote on hundreds of 
appointees--the czars go around this process. Now, they get paid 
$172,000 each and they all have staffs. We are spending millions of 
dollars on people who have not been vetted by the U.S. Senate. We do 
not know who they are or what they are doing.
  Why won't the President use transparency and have these people come 
before the Senate and talk to them? Why are they so smart, and why do 
you have to have duplication of already existing Cabinet jobs?

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