[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 170 (Sunday, December 30, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8528-S8529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Vote on the Nomination of William Baer

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there is now 2 
minutes of debate prior to a vote on the Baer nomination.
  Who yields time?
  Mr. REID. We yield back all time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the nomination of William Joseph Baer, of Maryland, to be an 
Assistant Attorney General?
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachussetts (Mr. 
Kerry), the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator 
from Vermont (Mr. Leahy) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. KYL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. 
Chambliss), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. DeMint), the Senator 
from Nebraska (Mr. Johanns), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), the 
Senator from Ohio (Mr. Portman), and the Senator from Florida (Mr. 
Rubio).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 64, nays 26, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 249 Ex.]

                                YEAS--64

     Akaka
     Ayotte
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Bingaman
     Blumenthal
     Boxer
     Brown (MA)
     Brown (OH)
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Collins
     Conrad
     Coons
     Corker
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Heller
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Landrieu
     Lee
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lugar
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (NE)
     Nelson (FL)
     Paul
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--26

     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Enzi
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Hoeven
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Kyl
     McCain
     McConnell
     Risch
     Roberts
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Thune
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--10

     Alexander
     Chambliss
     DeMint
     Johanns
     Kerry
     Kirk
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Portman
     Rubio
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am glad that the Senate voted to confirm 
the nomination of Bill Baer to serve as Assistant Attorney General in 
the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. His nomination has 
been pending for 10 months, and more than three

[[Page S8529]]

months have passed since the Judiciary Committee favorably reported his 
nomination with bipartisan support. The Antitrust Division has 
continued its important work with three acting heads who have worked 
diligently to fulfill the mission of the office. But those solutions 
are only temporary, and it is essential that the Senate undertook its 
constitutional responsibility to advise and consent on a permanent 
division head with responsibility for enforcing our Nation's antitrust 
laws.
  Mr. Baer is an outstanding candidate to fulfill this role. He has 
spent over 35 years working in the field of antitrust and consumer 
protection law. He served as Director of the Bureau of Competition at 
the Federal Trade Commission in the 1990s, and now chairs the Antitrust 
Group at the law firm of Arnold & Porter. His nomination has received 
bipartisan support from leading practitioners of antitrust law, 
including 12 former heads of the Antitrust Division representing every 
presidential administration since 1972. His nomination has also 
received bipartisan support from 29 former chairs of the American Bar 
Association's Section on Antitrust Law, who praise his ``demonstrated 
ability as an antitrust lawyer and his outstanding record of public 
service.''
  Bill Baer is a leading voice on antitrust matters. He advised the 
Antitrust Modernization Commission, and frequently contributes to 
workshops at the Department of Justice and FTC. He was named one of 
``The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers'' by The National Law Journal 
in 2010, and the ``Leading Lawyer for Antitrust'' in 2011. Chambers, 
Who's Who, and the Legal 500 have all recognized him as one of our 
country's leading practitioners in antitrust law.
  When the 12 former heads of the Antitrust Division wrote to the 
Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Mr. Baer's nomination earlier 
this year, they wrote: ``Mr. Baer's tenure as Director of the [FTC] 
Bureau of Competition was marked by principled, effective enforcement 
of the antitrust laws and . . . procedures that balanced the needs of 
the Commission with the legitimate concerns of both businesses and 
consumers. We are confident that he will continue the strong, rational, 
and nonpartisan antitrust enforcement tradition of the United States 
Department of Justice.''
  After months and months of needless delays, Bill Baer can at last 
begin that important work to help protect the American people.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we had a brief colloquy, the Republican 
leader and I, before the vote. Now that everyone is on the floor, I 
will elaborate a little bit. We have one more vote today. Then we are 
both going to have our respective caucuses. We hope there will be an 
announcement after that. We will have to wait and see.
  Over the last 24 hours, we have been working with Senator McConnell's 
staff and Senator McConnell to craft legislation to shield middle-class 
families from huge tax increases that could pass both Chambers on a 
bipartisan basis. But I wish to be clear. There are still serious 
differences between the two sides. I am only going to talk about one. 
We have made a lot of progress. I said earlier today, I appreciate very 
much Senator McConnell's good-faith efforts, and I am confident he 
feels the same way about me.
  The one thing I do want to mention is that we are not going to have 
any Social Security cuts. At this stage, that just doesn't seem 
appropriate. We are open to discussion about entitlement reforms, but 
we are going to have to take it in a different direction. The present 
status will not work. We are willing to make difficult concessions as 
part of a balanced comprehensive agreement, but we will not agree to 
cut Social Security benefits as part of a small or short-term 
agreement, especially if that agreement gives more handouts to the 
rich.
  With 36 hours left until the country goes over the Cliff, I remain 
hopeful but realistic about the prospects of reaching a bipartisan 
agreement. At some point in the negotiating process it becomes obvious, 
when the other side is intentionally demanding concessions they know 
the other side is not willing to make, we are not there.
  I hope we are going to be able to go further. Right now, with the 
status of the negotiations, we are not where we could come forward and 
say we have this for you. As I indicated, and just to make another 
statement in that regard, at some point in the negotiating process it 
appears there are things that stop us from moving forward. I hope we 
are not there, but we are getting real close, and that is why I still 
hold out hope we can get something done. I am not overly optimistic, 
but I am cautiously optimistic we can get something done.
  I hope I have made it clear we have one vote. That is all we have. I 
hope later in the evening there will be another vote or two, but right 
now we don't have that. We have one scheduled vote, and that is taking 
place right now. But everybody should hang loose because something may 
break and we will be able to get something done.