[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 21 (Thursday, February 11, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S587-S589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE CALENDAR
Mr. REID. Mr. President, we have a number of nominations that have
been cleared. I appreciate the cooperation of the Republicans in this
regard. I have said enough on this subject. I am glad we are able to
get this many done.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to
executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 531, 580, 602, 615, 622,
623, 627, 631, 642, 645, 646, 650, 651, 658, 659, 660, 662, 666, 686,
687, 689, 690, 691, 692, 693, 694, and 695; that the nominations be
confirmed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table
en bloc; that no further motions be in order; that any statements
relating to the nominations be printed in the Record; that the
President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the
Senate then resume legislative session.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The nominations considered and confirmed en bloc are as follows:
UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION
Ketanji Brown Jackson, of Maryland, to be a Member of the
United States Sentencing Commission for a term expiring
October 31, 2013.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Susan B. Carbon, of New Hampshire, to be Director of the
Violence Against Women Office, Department of Justice.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Betty E. King, of New York, to be Representative of the
United States of America to the Office of the United Nations
and Other International Organizations in Geneva, with the
rank of Ambassador.
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Caryn A. Wagner, of Virginia, to be Under Secretary for
Intelligence and Analysis, Department of Homeland Security.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Sara Manzano-Diaz, of Pennsylvania, to be Director of the
Women's Bureau, Department of Labor.
CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE
Patrick Alfred Corvington, of Maryland, to be Chief
Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and
Community Service.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Robert A. Petzel, of Minnesota, to be Under Secretary for
Health of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Nicole Yvette Lamb-Hale, of Michigan, to be an Assistant
Secretary of Commerce.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Marisa Lago, of New York, to be an Assistant Secretary of
the Treasury.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Ellen Gloninger Murray, of Virginia, to be an Assistant
Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Bryan Hayes Samuels, of Illinois, to be Commissioner on
Children, Youth, and Families, Department of Health and Human
Services.
DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Charles Collyns, of Maryland, to be a Deputy Under
Secretary of the Treasury.
Mary John Miller, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary
of the Treasury.
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Andre Birotte, Jr., of California, to be United States
Attorney for the Central District of California for the term
of four years.
Richard S. Hartunian, of New York, to be United States
Attorney for the Northern District of New York for the term
of four years.
Ronald C. Machen, Jr., of the District of Columbia, to be
United States Attorney for the District of Columbia for the
term of four years.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Mary Sally Matiella, of Arizona, to be an Assistant
Secretary of the Army.
Douglas B. Wilson, of Arizona, to be an Assistant Secretary
of Defense.
NATIONAL FOUNDATION ON THE ARTS AND THE HUMANITIES
Irvin M. Mayfield, Jr., of Louisiana, to be a Member of the
National Council on the Arts for a term expiring September 3,
2014.
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION
Cynthia L. Attwood, of Virginia, to be a Member of the
Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission for a term
expiring April 27, 2013.
SECURITIES INVESTOR PROTECTION CORPORATION
Sharon Y. Bowen, of New York, to be a Director of the
Securities Investor Protection Corporation for a term
expiring December 31, 2012.
Orlan Johnson, of Maryland, to be a Director of the
Securities Investor Protection Corporation for a term
expiring December 31, 2011.
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Douglas A. Criscitello, of Virginia, to be Chief Financial
Officer, Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Theodore W. Tozer, of Ohio, to be President, Government
National Mortgage Association.
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
David W. Mills, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary
of Commerce.
Suresh Kumar, of New Jersey, to be Assistant Secretary of
Commerce and Director General of the United States and
Foreign Commercial Service.
Kevin Wolf, of Virginia, to be an Assistant Secretary of
Commerce.
nomination of Caryn Wagner
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I support the nomination of Ms. Caryn
Wagner to be Under Secretary of Intelligence and Analysis at the
Department of Homeland Security, DHS, and urge my colleagues to confirm
her. The Intelligence Committee unanimously approved the nomination by
voice vote on December 10, 2009.
The Under Secretary of Intelligence and Analysis leads the Office of
Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, which
is among the youngest elements of the U.S. intelligence community. The
main responsibilities of the Office are to ensure that information
related to homeland security threats is (1) collected, analyzed, and
disseminated to homeland security customers in the Department, at the
State, local, and tribal levels; (2) shared as appropriate with private
sector entities; and (3) provided to other intelligence community
agencies. The Under Secretary of the Office leads these efforts,
provides homeland security intelligence and advice to the Secretary and
other senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security, and
serves as the Department's senior interagency intelligence
representative.
The cases of Najibullah Zazi in New York and David Headley in
Chicago, both U.S. persons allegedly involved in plotting terrorist
acts and having ties to noted terrorist groups overseas, show the
threat of violent Islamist radicalization occurring in this country is
real. The Department of Homeland Security was created in 2002 to
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focus on the threat of terrorist activity in the United States, a
mission that is vitally dependent on good, accurate, actionable
intelligence.
Nonetheless, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis has experienced
numerous problems in its short tenure and members of the Intelligence
Committee and the Homeland Security Committee have frequently raised
concerns. Of particular note have been the Office's ill-defined
planning, programming and budget processes; a gross overreliance on
contractors to the point that 63 percent of the workforce was
contractor personnel as of this summer; and a lack of a strategic plan.
On a number of occasions the Office has produced and disseminated
finished intelligence that has been based on noncredible open source
materials or focused intelligence resources on the first amendment
protected activities of American citizens.
Clearly, the Office is in need of strong leadership from an Under
Secretary with an extensive background in management and intelligence.
The Intelligence Committee is confident that Ms. Wagner is such a
person and is up to the challenge of setting the DHS Office of
Intelligence and Analysis on a proper course. If confirmed, among her
first tasks will be to review a draft plan to restructure and refine
the Office's mission, which will be a good first indication of how Ms.
Wagner will manage the organization.
Ms. Wagner's distinguished career in public and private service
prepares her well for this position. Ms. Wagner is currently an
instructor in intelligence resource management for the Intelligence and
Security Academy, LLC.
She retired from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
on October 1, 2008, where she served as budget director and
cybersecurity coordinator. Prior to that, Ms. Wagner served in the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence as an Assistant Deputy
Director of National Intelligence for Management and the first chief
financial officer for the National Intelligence Program. She assumed
this position after serving as the executive director for Intelligence
Community Affairs.
Ms. Wagner has also previously served as the senior Defense
Intelligence Agency Representative to the U.S. European Command and
North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the Deputy Director for
Analysis and Production at DIA. She was also formerly the staff
director of the Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence at
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a signals
intelligence and electronic warfare officer in the U.S. Army.
President Obama nominated Ms. Wagner on October 23, 2009. After
completing the prehearing procedures, the Intelligence Committee held a
confirmation hearing on the nomination on December 1, 2009. As part of
the confirmation process, Ms. Wagner was asked to complete a committee
questionnaire, prehearing questions, and posthearing questions for the
record. The answers she provided have all been posted to the
Intelligence Committee's Web site. The Senate Homeland Security and
Government Affairs Committee also held a hearing on Ms. Wagner's
nomination on December 3, 2009.
In sum, I am confident that Caryn Wagner will be an asset to the
Department of Homeland Security and to the intelligence community. I
look forward to working with her and I urge the Senate to approve Ms.
Wagner's nomination.
Nomination of Andre Birotte, Jr.
Mr. President, nominations in this Chamber are moving at a snail's
pace.
Last week, it took us three votes--spanning 3 days--to move only two
nominations.
Last Thursday, we had a cloture vote on Martha Johnson, the nominee
to lead the General Services Administration. The Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee reported her to the floor unanimously
last June, but since then her nomination has been blocked on the floor
for 7 months. Seven months of a hold. And then once cloture was
invoked, 94 Members of this body voted to confirm her.
Unfortunately, the minority's blocking of noncontroversial nominees
is becoming the rule rather than the exception.
Last Tuesday, I spoke about two nominees for posts in the
intelligence community--Caryn Wagner to be the Under Secretary of
Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security, DHS,
and of Ambassador Phil Goldberg to be the Assistant Secretary for
Intelligence and Research at the Department of State.
Neither nomination is controversial. Both were reported out of the
Senate Intelligence Committee by voice vote. And both of these posts
are critical to efforts to protect the security of our Nation.
Yet both nominations are still blocked on the floor.
Today, I rise to speak on yet another noncontroversial nomination
that members of the minority are blocking.
Andre Birotte, Jr., is the nominee to be the U.S. attorney for the
Central District of Los Angeles. He was reported out of the Judiciary
Committee by voice vote.
He is highly qualified, and he is not controversial.
Mr. Birotte is a former Federal prosecutor in the office who
currently serves as the inspector general for the Los Angeles Police
Commission. In this role, he has the often unenviable job of
determining whether disciplinary action is necessary against law
enforcement officials who have been accused of official misconduct. His
position requires him to review the facts and follow where they lead--
even in highly sensitive situations.
In this tough role, Mr. Birotte has stood out for integrity and
evenhandedness. He has earned the overwhelming respect and support of
both law enforcement officers and the civil rights community.
Mr. Birotte is tough. He is independent. He has management
experience. He has prosecution experience. And I believe he will make
an excellent U.S. attorney.
He will also be the first African-American U.S. attorney in the
central district. It is my hope that his historic appointment as the
lead Federal law enforcement official in Los Angeles will be one more
step forward for a city that has known both great progress and, at
times, acute disappointment in race relations.
For all of these reasons, I would like to see him confirmed as soon
as possible.
This nomination is not just important to me because of the strength
of the nominee, however. I also believe it is essential that we get
this Office's leader into place.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Central Distric of California is
the second largest in the country. Only the Office in the District of
Columbia is larger, and that is because it has unusual responsibility
for both local and Federal crimes.
The central district office employs more than 250 Federal
prosecutors. They bear responsibility for prosecuting violations of
Federal law across seven counties--Los Angeles County, Orange County,
Riverside County, San Bernardino County, San Luis Obispo County, Santa
Barbara County, and Ventura County--that span more than 40,000 square
miles. The district includes Los Angeles and 34 other cities, with a
combined population of more than 18 million.
It is a huge operation.
As in all of the U.S. attorneys' offices, the prosecutors in the
Central District of California are busy.
In the past year alone, the U.S. Attorney's Office has brought in
over $150 million in judgments, won significant convictions against
leaders of gangs and fraudulent enterprises, and placed people behind
bars for crimes committed around the world.
Let me give you a few examples, all from 2009 and 2010:
Central District prosecutors secured a $46 million restitution order
in a case against a former real estate appraiser who committed massive
mortgage fraud.
They put the leader of a $64 million Ponzi scheme behind bars for 300
months and won a $44 million restitution order against him.
They indicted 88 members and associates of a street gang called the
Avenues on various charges, including the 2008 murder of a Los Angeles
deputy sheriff; they indicted 24 people on gang-related drug
trafficking in an investigation known as Operation Knockout; they took
down an international sex trafficking ring that was forcing Guatemalan
girls into prostitution in
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Los Angeles; they put a foreign national behind bars for 78 months for
participating in the transport of over 9,000 illegal aliens to and from
Los Angeles; and they obtained a conviction and 16-year prison sentence
against the founder of a domestic terrorist group that was planning
attacks on U.S. military operations.
All of those prosecutions have occurred in the last 13 months alone.
Andre Birotte is a highly qualified individual who has been nominated
not to lead an office embroiled in the politics of Washington, but
instead that bears responsibility for investigating, prosecuting,
deterring, and preventing Federal crimes against Americans and their
families.
I do not believe the leadership of this office should get caught up
in an unrelated dispute. If someone objects to Mr. Birotte, I hope they
will come forward. Otherwise, I hope that we can move forward quickly
to confirm this nominee.
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