[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.
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