[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 15 (Tuesday, February 2, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S401-S403]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, following remarks of the leaders, the Senate 
will be in a period of morning business for an hour, with Senators 
permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each. The first half hour will 
be controlled by the Democrats, the second by the Republicans.
  Following morning business, the Senate will proceed to executive 
session to resume postcloture debate on the nomination of Patricia 
Smith to be Solicitor for the Department of Labor. I would note this is 
another one of the endless delays we have had to go through. We are in 
postcloture; 30 hours of doing nothing. We have had so many 30 hours of 
doing nothing it is hard to comprehend the wasted time--all the staff, 
Senators' time that could be better put to use. People could be 
drafting legislation, on and on, contemplating what could be done but 
for this endless stalling we have seen.
  The Senate will recess from 12:30 to 2:15 for the weekly caucus 
meetings. Following disposition of the Smith nomination, whenever that 
might be, the Senate will proceed to vote on the nomination of Martha 
Johnson to be Administrator of the largest real estate organization in 
the world, the General Services Administration. It is difficult to 
comprehend, but that has been without a leader because of what has been 
going on and the stalls that have taken place, so we had to file 
cloture.
  We will notify Senators when the votes are scheduled. I would like to 
finish Patricia Smith at a reasonable hour today. That is immediately 
following a simple majority vote for her. Then there is a 60-vote 
margin on cloture on the future Administrator of the General Services 
Administration and then there is 30 hours after that.
  We will do tomorrow as we did for the Republicans when they had their 
retreat last Wednesday; we were not in session. We don't wish to be in 
session tomorrow. We have the President coming to our retreat and a 
number of other special guests, but if we have to come in tomorrow, 
either before or after the retreat, we are going to have to do that to 
meet the burdens of this endless stalling that is taking place in the 
Senate.
  When a young Nigerian terrorist boarded an airplane bound for America 
on Christmas Day, there was no permanent boss at the TSA, the agency 
responsible for the safety of our airports. This agency was created 
after 9/11 specifically to keep air travel safe. When he tried to blow 
up that plane, the top positions at both the intelligence agencies 
within the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security 
were empty. Why? Because Republican Senators refused to let this body 
hold a vote on these highly capable people the President has asked to 
serve in these roles.
  We all know Republicans have dedicated themselves to grinding the 
Government to a halt. They do so openly and proudly and boast about 
their aversion to compromise. That is why, time and time again, they 
exploit the rules of the Senate and abuse this body's procedural 
traditions. That is why they have wasted countless hours and shattered 
remarkable records for stubbornness. That is why, when we

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have faced questions of national security, they have answered with 
politics.
  Republicans have repeatedly asked fearful families to put their 
concerns on hold while they score political points, they think, by 
playing partisan games. This is not a game.
  An embarrassingly high number of critical national security officials 
remain unable to go to work. For political reasons, a handful of 
Republican Senators are standing between these experts and their 
offices. That means they are also standing between the American people 
and the American people's security.
  Too many of the President's nominees for critical national security 
jobs await Senate confirmation. Today, I wish to talk about four of 
those positions Republicans refuse to fill; one, the Under Secretary of 
Defense for Personnel and Readiness, which is the No. 3 job at the 
Pentagon. We have Secretary Gates, we have one other individual, and 
then we have this Under Secretary of Defense--whose position is not 
filled.
  No. 2, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research, 
the head of the State Department's Intelligence Department. Think about 
that. When Secretary Clinton is called to go to Pakistan, Afghanistan 
or anyplace in the world, her arm, the intelligence arm, the security 
department, must be able to give her information as to what is going 
on, what has gone on, what is going to go on in the future. Not with 
this State Department. The Republicans will not let this person be 
chosen.
  Third, Under Secretary of Homeland Security, again, for Intelligence. 
This person is head of the Department of Homeland Security's 
intelligence arm. Just like there is no one today at the State 
Department, there is no one at the Department of Homeland Security 
dealing with intelligence. It is hard to comprehend, but that is true.

  Finally, the U.S. Representative for the Conference on Disarmament, 
whose job is to work with other nations to keep our own people safe 
from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. The President has 
chosen exceptionally qualified men and women for these jobs, but 
without a Senate vote confirming them as our Constitution requires, 
they cannot do those jobs.
  Let's talk about the Pentagon. For the first job I mentioned, the No. 
3 job at the Pentagon, the President has nominated GEN Clifford 
Stanley. For 33 years, Dr. Stanley, General Stanley has served our 
country in the Marine Corps and in communities where he and his family 
have lived. After serving bravely as a marine infantry officer, he went 
on to become quite an academic, served as a White House fellow. He was 
head of the Nation's largest nonprofit sector scholarship organization. 
He was asked to come back.
  He is not a controversial nominee. The Senate Armed Services 
Committee approved him unanimously but on the Senate floor, no, not 
General Stanley. He would not only be a pivotal part of the Pentagon's 
senior leadership, he would also be in charge of making sure 
servicemembers are prepared for war at a time we are waging two of them 
and as we plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, a surge I 
know my Republican colleagues support.
  Our military leaders have told me his absence is having a negative 
impact on the Pentagon's operations. I have received phone calls: 
Senator Reid, what are you going to do to get this person approved?
  I tell them I am doing my best. Now we wasted all week--that is what 
it will wind up being--on two nominees, one to be the Solicitor for the 
Labor Department and the other to be the head of the General Services 
Administration. If people are serious about giving our troops the tools 
they need to succeed in battle and at home--and I am confident the 
Republicans must think that--we should be and they should be as 
committed to giving our military the leader who will be going to work 
every day and making sure that happens.
  Let's talk about intelligence, these agencies that try to find out 
what the enemy is doing. The second and third positions I mentioned 
earlier are the two intelligence roles at the Department of State and 
Homeland Security, as I mentioned. For the State Department position, 
President Obama has nominated Ambassador Phil Goldberg. Similar to 
General Stanley, Ambassador Goldberg is not a controversial or partisan 
nominee. In fact, it was President Bush who gave him the title of 
Ambassador when he made Goldberg our top diplomat in Bolivia.
  I traveled to Bolivia, the first Senate congressional delegation I 
can ever remember going to Bolivia. Ambassador Goldberg was there--so 
impressive. Ambassador Goldberg has also led law enforcement 
intelligence and nonproliferation efforts in countries such as Kosovo 
and North Korea. He is head of the State Department's intelligence 
branch. He would work with our ambassadors around the world and be the 
Secretary of State's top intelligence adviser. But, no, he is going to 
have to wait; this intelligence aspect of the Department of State can 
wait.
  The assistant leader, my friend, Senator Durbin, was at the State 
Department today learning from the Secretary of State about some of the 
issues facing our country, meeting with Secretary Clinton. It is a 
shame Ambassador Goldberg cannot go to work, but he can't.
  For the Homeland Security position, the President has nominated Caryn 
Wagner. She, too, is highly qualified for this role, having held a 
number of senior positions in the House Permanent Select Committee on 
Intelligence and Officer of the Director of National Intelligence and 
the National Intelligence Program. As Homeland Security's top 
intelligence official, Wagner would be responsible for ensuring the 
Department's partners at State, local and tribal levels--and private 
sector--have the information they need to keep us safe from the bad 
folks around the world.
  As far as disarmament, the fourth nominee I mentioned is Ambassador 
Laura Kennedy. President Obama asked her to serve as our Nation's 
representative to the conference on disarmament. This group is 
responsible for negotiating multilateral arms control and disarmament 
agreements such as the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Biological 
Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention--some big 
issues. Ambassador Kennedy is a member of the Senior Foreign Service 
and has worked with the State Department and Bureau of European and 
Eurasian Affairs, the United Nations, the National War College, and as 
President Bush's Ambassador to Turkmenistan.
  Of all the countries with nuclear weapons, the United States, our 
great country, is the only one that does not have a representative at 
the negotiating table of the Conference on Disarmament. Why? Because 
the Republicans are stalling everything. That is unacceptable. We need 
to confirm her. We need to have confirmed her a long time ago.
  But it is not just those cases, it is many others. It is clear these 
positions are critical to our national security, as I talked about, and 
equally evident that these nominees are well-qualified, nonpartisan 
public servants. What is not clear is why our Republican colleagues 
refuse to bring them up for a vote. Senate Republicans are simply so 
opposed to everything, absolutely everything, they even opposed putting 
people in some of the most important positions of our Government, 
people who were originally appointed by President Bush to positions of 
high standing.
  These are not isolated cases, they are part of an endless and 
reckless pattern. As with candidates for the President's Cabinet and 
other top administration posts and numerous Federal judges, Republicans 
have decided the President does not deserve to have his nominees 
reviewed by the Senate, as the Constitution clearly States. Ignore him, 
is what they say.
  This obstruction could not have come at a more dangerous time. I was 
coming to work and was in an elevator. I looked and there was an 
extremely impressive woman, she had on a coat, and I could see she had 
a uniform on. She said, ``I am Dr. Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the 
United States.'' I heard so much about this Alabama physician who 
dedicated her life to taking care of poor people. I was so happy to 
meet her. Then I remembered how long we had to wait to get her 
confirmed.
  The obstruction could not come at a more dangerous time, given what 
is going on in the country. The Republicans blocked a vote on our 
Surgeon

[[Page S403]]

General, Dr. Benjamin, as I just mentioned, even when the President 
declared H1N1 as a national emergency. They blocked a vote on the top 
Homeland Security official in science and technology, and that was even 
as the Nation braced for both a flu pandemic and bioterror threats.
  The list seems endless. While our sons and daughters are fighting in 
Iraq and rebuilding that nation, last year Republicans delayed the 
confirmations of America's Ambassador to Iraq. And while our troops 
serve bravely in Afghanistan, Republicans delayed the confirmation of 
LTG Stanley McChrystal, our new commander in that difficult war.
  This clearly is not the way the Senate is supposed to work. It is not 
even the way it typically works. As I have pointed out before, it took 
only 4 months for President Obama to face as many filibusters of his 
nominees as President Bush faced in his entire first 4 years. This 
Republican caucus over here proudly says: We blocked as many of 
President Obama's nominees in 4 months as you--over here on this side 
of the aisle--took 4 years to block. Democrats have no interest in 
playing these games. That is why we did not do what they are doing. No 
other minority has ever done anything like this before. This is one of 
a kind.
  It would be one thing if Republicans, bound together in unified 
opposition to everything, as they have made their custom, voted against 
these vital nominees. It would be one thing if they reviewed their 
resumes, brought the nominees before the appropriate committees, and 
decided they were not fit to serve. But that is not what is happening. 
Instead, simply to waste time, Republicans are refusing to let the 
Senate vote at all. When these nominees do finally come before this 
body, you would be surprised--many of them pass unanimously after they 
have stalled for days and days. You shouldn't be surprised, but it is 
enough to make you feel uneasy in the stomach that these people who are 
concerned with the security of our Nation are being stopped from being 
able to go to work by virtue of the Republican party of no.
  These Senators are ignoring their responsibilities to confirm or 
reject the men and women our Commander in Chief has chosen to help lead 
this Nation to safety. They are abdicating their responsibility to the 
American people to keep us safe. They are certainly not putting country 
first as advertised.
  Here is the bottom line: My Republican colleagues are basing their 
judgment on the political party doing the nominating rather than the 
person being nominated. This irresponsible partisanship does not merely 
poison our political system, it endangers our national security.
  I have no doubt our friends on the other side realize that when we 
keep a critical office empty in the Pentagon, the State Department, the 
Department of Homeland Security, we are not keeping the American people 
safe. They know what they are doing, and they know what they are doing 
is dangerous. If they do not, they certainly should. That makes these 
partisan games all the more disgraceful.

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