[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 110 (Monday, July 29, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5998-S5999]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Comey Nomination

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I wish to speak about the Comey 
nomination.
  James Comey, Jr., should be confirmed to be our next Director of the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation. I feel it should be done without 
delay. Director Mueller has served very well, but his term expires 
early September. It is imperative the Senate work quickly to confirm 
his successor.
  I worked with Ranking Member Grassley to schedule James Comey's 
confirmation hearing as soon as we returned from the Fourth of July 
recess. Earlier this month, with Senator Grassley's cooperation, we in 
the Judiciary Committee unanimously reported the nomination of James 
Comey to the floor. However, in contrast with the treatment of previous 
FBI Director nominees--the FBI Director nominees of all preceding 
Presidents--who were all confirmed by the full Senate within a day or 
two of being reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee, James Comey is 
the first FBI Director nominee to be filibustered in Senate history by 
either Republicans or Democrats.
  In this case, of course, it is the Republicans who are filibustering 
a law enforcement position such as this, somebody who was voted out of 
the committee by every single Republican and Democratic Senator--and 
then to be filibustered by Republicans on his nomination?
  We should be voting to confirm James Comey tonight. It has already 
taken twice as long to bring up this nomination for a vote in the full 
Senate as for any previous FBI Director. President Obama officially 
nominated James Comey on June 21, 38 days ago. No other FBI Director 
has waited longer than 20 days from nomination to confirmation. The FBI 
Director plays a very vital role in our national security, and the 
Senate must put an end to these routine delays.
  Nearly 12 years ago, when the Senate considered President Bush's 
nomination of Robert Mueller to be Director of

[[Page S5999]]

the FBI on the same day he had been reported by the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, I spoke about how the rights of all Americans were at stake 
in the selection of a new FBI Director and how the FBI has 
extraordinary power to affect the lives of ordinary Americans.
  Contrast that with President Bush, Democrats were in the majority, 
and we Democrats worked to get President Bush's nominee confirmed the 
same day he came out of committee.
  We Democrats made sure politics were not in play in the confirmation 
of the FBI Director. Republicans shouldn't allow politics to play in 
the confirmation of an FBI Director. I said at the time, with Robert 
Mueller, I noted the FBI's sweeping investigatory powers, when used 
properly, can protect all of us by combating crime, espionage, and 
terrorism. But I also warned that unchecked, these same powers could 
undermine our civil liberties and our right to privacy.
  When I spoke those words, I didn't know that just 40 days later the 
world--and the FBI -would change dramatically in the wake of the 
terrorist attacks on September 11. It shook this area, including even 
the Senate because of the anthrax attack, which killed a number of 
individuals. One of the anthrax letters was addressed to me. As the 
full Senate considers the President's nomination of James Comey to be 
the seventh Director of the FBI, what I said in 2001 holds true today. 
With the increased counterterrorism role of the FBI and the expansion 
of the FBI's surveillance activities, it is even more imperative that 
the next FBI Director possesses an unflagging commitment to the 
Constitution and the rule of law.
  James Comey is the right man to lead the FBI. He has had a long and 
outstanding career in law enforcement. He worked for years as a front-
line prosecutor on a range of cases fighting violent crime, terrorism, 
and white-collar fraud, all of which are at the core of the FBI's 
mission. He also served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District 
of New York. He served as the Deputy Attorney General under President 
George W. Bush.
  In fact, Madam President, many of us remember, when he was Deputy 
Attorney General, the dramatic hospital bedside confrontation James 
Comey had with senior White House officials who tried to prod an ailing 
John Ashcroft to reauthorize an NSA surveillance program--a program 
that the Justice Department had concluded was illegal. Yet White House 
staff was over there trying, at his hospital bed, to get the Attorney 
General to agree to it. But the Deputy Attorney General stepped in, in 
his role as Acting Attorney General, and stood firm against this 
attempt to circumvent the rule of law, and I believe he will continue 
to show the same strength of character and principled leadership if 
confirmed as Director.
  During his confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee, James 
Comey proved that his reputation for unwavering integrity and 
professionalism is well-deserved. One area of great concern for me was 
his approval of a 2005 legal memo to authorize the use of various 
methods of torture, including waterboarding. I wanted to make sure that 
as FBI Director, James Comey would never condone or resort to 
waterboarding a prisoner--something for which we have prosecuted people 
in other countries. He answered my questions and stated directly, 
unequivocally, that waterboarding is not only personally abhorrent but 
that it is torture and illegal. He also testified that if confirmed he 
would continue the FBI's policy of not permitting the use of abusive 
interrogation techniques against prisoners, including sleep deprivation 
and cramped confinement.
  Mr. Comey and I do not agree on all matters. I do not agree with him 
that the Authorization for the Use of Military Force permits the 
government to detain indefinitely an American citizen captured on 
American soil in military custody without charge or trial, and I will 
continue to oppose efforts to codify such an interpretation of the law. 
I was glad James Comey committed to adhering to the current 
administration policy of not indefinitely detaining Americans in such 
circumstances.
  When he testified before us, I saw a man of integrity and honesty, 
competent in background, and so once he is confirmed--and I trust he 
will be confirmed once this filibuster has ended--I will continue to 
press him on the scope and legality of surveillance conducted by the 
government pursuant to the PATRIOT Act and other authorities under the 
Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act. As I noted during his 
confirmation hearing, just because the FBI has the ability to collect 
huge amounts of data does not mean it should be collecting huge amounts 
of data. As the head of our premier law enforcement agency, the FBI 
Director bears a special responsibility to ensure that domestic 
government surveillance does not unduly infringe upon our freedoms. I 
have long said that protecting our national security and protecting 
Americans' fundamental rights are not mutually exclusive. We can and 
must do both. I fully expect that James Comey will work to achieve both 
goals.
  After Director Mueller's distinguished tenure at the Bureau, James 
Comey has big shoes to fill. The next Director must face the growing 
challenge of how to sustain the FBI's increased focus on 
counterterrorism while at the same time upholding the FBI's commitment 
to its historic law enforcement functions. It is going to be 
particularly difficult to protect this country and protect our law 
enforcement functions because of sequestration and other fiscal 
constraints, but I think the FBI has to continue to play a key role in 
combating the crimes that affect everyday Americans--from violent 
crimes, to bank robberies, to fraud and corruption cases.
  If we learned nothing else since the September 11 attacks, we learned 
that it matters who leads our Nation at all levels of government. We 
need strong, principled, ethical leaders who steadfastly adhere to the 
law. I am confident that James Comey is such a leader. I am urging 
Senators on both sides of the aisle to join me in voting to overcome 
this filibuster in a vote to confirm him to be the next Director of the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  As I said before--and I will put into the Record how long it has 
taken from nomination to confirmation--twice as long as President 
Bush's FBI nomination, more than twice as long as President Reagan's 
FBI nomination, and twice as long as President Nixon's FBI nomination. 
In every one of those cases, no Democrat filibustered President Bush, 
President Reagan, and President Nixon. We all worked to get the FBI 
Director in there. This filibuster by my friends on the other side of 
the aisle is unprecedented. I wish they would treat President Obama the 
same way we treated President Bush, President Reagan, and President 
Nixon and not make President Obama seem to be somehow different and 
interfere with law enforcement the way they have.
  Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the 
Record a chart showing how long it took previous Presidents.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                            Total # days from nomination
           FBI Director Nominee                    to confirmation
------------------------------------------------------------------------
JAMES B. COMEY, JR. (OBAMA)...............  38 days--as of 7/29/13.
ROBERT S. MUELLER, III (W. BUSH)..........  15 days.
LOUIS FREEH (CLINTON).....................  17 days.
WILLIAM SESSIONS (REAGAN).................  16 days.
WILLIAM WEBSTER (CARTER)..................  20 days.
CLARENCE KELLEY (NIXON)...................  19 days.
------------------------------------------------------------------------