[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 31, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6097-S6099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Power Nomination
Mr. COONS. Madam President, this week the Senate will consider the
nomination of Samantha Power to serve as our next Ambassador to the
United Nations. In fact, I hope we will take it up later today. This is
a critical position to our President's national and foreign policy
team, and I believe Ms. Power's experience, values, and wise approach
to foreign policy will make her a terrific Ambassador.
Throughout her career, she has displayed a passion for human rights
and worked tirelessly to prevent atrocities abroad. From her early days
as a journalist, to her work in the White House, she has shown a
pragmatic idealism and a deep and nuanced understanding of the foreign
policy and security challenges facing this country around the globe.
I met with Ms. Power a few weeks ago. I came away confident that she
is the right choice to represent our country at the U.N. She
understands the critical importance of democratic values and human
rights to global stability. Ours is a complex time and a complex world.
The fabric of global stability is woven with many threads of democracy,
good governance, economic development, health, education, national
security and, of course, diplomacy.
The global challenges of our generation require leaders, leaders
capable of seeing each of these threads and appreciating how they
connect and how we can weave them together to make a stronger more
vibrant world.
As chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African
Affairs, I am excited to work with Ambassador Power to strengthen our
friendship and strategic partnerships on that vital continent. On
Israel, it is clear she believes in our Nation's unbreakable bond with
the Jewish State. She has shown us, in her words and actions,
especially when she played an underreported and underappreciated role
defending Israel at the U.N. during the Palestinian statehood vote.
In closing, it is clear that in Samantha Power we have a nominee with
a keen intellect and a grasp of the complex foreign policy challenges
we face in the world. She combines a dedication to American values and
principles with the pragmatism that will serve us well at the U.N. I am
proud to vote for her confirmation and urge my colleagues to do the
same.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise in support of the nomination
of Todd Jones to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives. I wish to first thank Senator Coons for his
remarks about Samantha Power. I am also looking forward to the vote on
her confirmation. I am looking forward to her service.
This is a very important job. As the Presiding Officer knows, the ATF
has an incredibly important role in investigating crimes and terrorist
incidents such as the Boston Marathon. They recently investigated the
explosion in Texas that took so many innocent lives. This must be a top
priority for the United States of America.
Yet this is a position where there are 2,400 agents--2,400 ATF
agents--and they have gone without a permanent Director for 7 years,
ever since this became a confirmable position. This happened under
President Bush. There was not a confirmed Director. It is happening now
up until today under President Obama. It is time to change that. It is
simply time to change it.
I know Todd Jones. For 2 years he has served as the U.S. attorney of
Minnesota at the same time he is serving as the ATF Director. That is
not an easy job. He has five children. He is a former marine. He was
willing to take on the ATF job after the Fast and Furious debacle. He
was willing to come in after that and help to clean up that agency and
make some very tough decisions. He took on that job while still
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remaining the U.S. attorney in Minnesota.
I would note he served as the U.S. attorney of Minnesota under
President Clinton and again was appointed to serve under President
Obama. Then, 2 years ago, he was asked to be the Acting Director of
ATF, never knowing if this day would ever come when actually there
would be a vote on his confirmation.
He literally has never turned down a tough assignment. Todd Jones has
an impressive background that makes him well prepared to lead the ATF.
After law school at the University of Minnesota, he entered the U.S.
Marine Corps, as I noted, where he served on Active Duty as a judge
advocate and infantry officer from 1983 until 1989. Two years later, he
was called back to Active Duty during the first Iraq war.
In addition to his military career and having the rare distinction of
serving as U.S. attorney under two different Presidents, Todd Jones
also has a strong record as a line prosecutor in the Minnesota U.S.
Attorney's Office. When Jones was U.S. attorney in Minnesota from 1998
to 2001, the violent crime rate decreased by 15 percent. So far during
his second tenure as the U.S. attorney, the violent crime rate in
Minnesota has already decreased by 9 percent.
We all know there are a lot of factors that go into that, including
the great work of our local police officers, including work of our
police chiefs, including the work of community groups, including the
economy. There are a number of things at hand. But when I hear attacks
against Mr. Jones, I believe it is important to set the record
straight.
One other thing--I did want to set the record straight on one other
thing. I so appreciate the leadership Senator Grassley has shown when
it comes to whistleblowers. But everyone should know, regarding this
complaint within the office, an internal complaint within the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Minnesota, it was investigated by the Judiciary
Committee. In this place, to set the record straight, the complainant
voluntarily agreed to mediate his concerns. The Office of Special
Counsel is no longer investigating. I wish to make that straight for
all of my colleagues so they understand the outcome of that and that
there is a mediation going on. It is not being investigated.
As an assistant U.S. attorney, Todd Jones was the lead prosecutor in
a number of cases involving drug conspiracies, money laundering,
financial fraud, and violent crime in the early 1990s. In the private
sector, he became a partner at two very well regarded Minnesota law
firms, Robins Kaplan and Greene Espel. He has led a number of very
important prosecutions in his capacity as U.S. attorney: Operation
Rhino, which involved the criminal prosecution of Omer Abdi Mohamed,
who recruited young Somali Americans to fight for terrorist groups in
Somalia, To date, this investigation has resulted in charges filed
against 22 other individuals and Operation Brother's Keeper, a major
RICO case, the second biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of America,
second only to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, prosecuted by the U.S.
Attorney's Office, by a fine prosecutor named Joe Dixon and many others
under Todd Jones's leadership.
This gives us a sense--and I would end with this as I see Senator
Leahy, our great chairman is here. Jones's confirmation is supported by
the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Chiefs of Police, 81
U.S. attorneys, the National District Attorneys Association,
Minnesota's former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Ralph Boelter, the
former U.S. attorney Tom Hefflefinger, who served under both George H.
W. Bush and George W. Bush in Minnesota, and dozens of others who have
worked with Mr. Jones over his many years of public service.
I would end with this: The ATF has people on the frontlines every
day. They do not ask if the work they have done is ordered by a
Republican or a Democrat. When they go to investigate a bombing, they
do not ask the police officers what their political affiliation is or
who the FBI is. They do not care. They just do their job. Now it is
time for the Senate to do its job and confirm an ATF Director for the
first time in 7 years. I thank the chairman for his leadership.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, when the 113th Congress convened
following the terrible tragedy in Newtown, CT, the Judiciary Committee
focused its attention on commonsense gun violence prevention
legislation. The American people made their voices heard in favor of
effective reforms, and many Senators went to work to find common
ground.
Although the Senate Judiciary Committee approved four pieces of
legislation to address gun violence, two of which were reported on
bipartisan votes, the Senate was unable to pass any of these measures.
Like many Americans, I was disappointed at the Senate's inability to
come together to make sensible changes to our laws to reduce gun
violence.
Today we have another chance to make progress in our efforts to
reduce gun violence with the confirmation of B. Todd Jones to lead the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Todd Jones has
served as the Acting Director since September 2011. Under his
leadership, the ATF has been called on to analyze the bombs left near
the finish line at the Boston Marathon, to sift through burned debris
in the West, TX, explosion and to trace the weapons used by the
shooters in the Newtown and Aurora massacres. The ATF has played a
major role in investigating some of our Nation's worst tragedies.
In addition to the ATF's enforcement responsibilities, the agency is
central to firearms commerce. The ATF issues permits for companies that
import firearms and provide firearms to law enforcement agencies.
Without a confirmed Director, the ATF's job of supporting and
regulating Americans who make their living in the business of firearms
is much more difficult. Yet we continue to hamper the ATF's ability to
do its job. No nominee to lead the ATF has been confirmed since that
position was made subject to the Senate's consent.
I hope the Senate will vote to change this unfortunate pattern of
obstruction. Mr. Jones is a dedicated public servant and law
enforcement official. He volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps in 1983,
serving on Active Duty as a Judge Advocate and Infantry officer until
1989. In 1991, he was recalled to Active Duty to command the 4th Marine
Division's Military Police Company in Iraq. He also served as
commanding officer of the Twin Cities Marine Reserve Unit. When Todd
Jones was confirmed by this body in 1998, he became the first African-
American U.S. attorney in Minnesota's history. Todd Jones has served
this country honorably as a marine, a U.S. attorney, and the ATF's
Acting Director.
Unfortunately, there is opposition to Mr. Jones's confirmation. But
in my view this opposition has little to do with his ability to lead
this important Federal agency. Every nominee to lead the ATF has been
met with unreasonable opposition. And the consistent opposition all
nominees to this post have faced is less about those nominees'
qualifications than about weakening a Federal law enforcement agency
that some disfavor.
Some Senate Republicans would prefer not to have anyone leading the
ATF, no matter who the nominee is. They would not allow President Bush
to have a confirmed Director, and they do not want President Obama to
have one either.
Opposition to confirming an ATF Director is just another piece of the
overall effort by some in Congress to make it more difficult for the
ATF to carry out its important mission. For example, when the ATF
proposed and implemented a rule intended to provide investigative leads
on straw purchasing rings in the Southwest that were fueling drug
cartel violence by trafficking firearms across the border, some Members
of Congress immediately objected, and the agency was sued to block
implementation of the rule. The rule, which has now been upheld
unanimously by two Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, including the
Fifth Circuit, was simple--it required federally licensed firearms
dealers to report sales of multiple semiautomatic rifles to the ATF,
just as all licensed dealers are required to report multiple sales of
handguns. Yet some spent significant energy and resources to block the
agency's action.
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And in recent years, some Members of Congress spent months and untold
public resources investigating misguided investigative tactics in the
ATF's Phoenix field office associated with an ATF criminal
investigation called Fast and Furious. The Fast and Furious
investigation concerned a significant firearms trafficking organization
in Arizona. This trafficking organization was systematically purchasing
hundreds of firearms using straw buyers and transferring them to
members of Mexican drug cartels. They operated with ease and virtual
impunity as the result of weak Federal laws concerning straw purchasing
and firearms trafficking. Investigators and prosecutors were hobbled by
weak laws. Some took unacceptable risks to combat a very serious
problem on both sides of our border with Mexico.
When the investigative tactics at issue came to light, they were
widely criticized, and Attorney General Holder acted swiftly to put an
end to them. The Attorney General also directed the Department of
Justice inspector general to conduct a thorough investigation. As a
result of the inspector general's investigation, those responsible for
these tactics were disciplined. And the ATF's procedures were revised
to set out clear guidelines for firearms trafficking investigations.
While some Members of Congress were content to merely heap blame on
the Attorney General and other dedicated law enforcement officials
following the Fast and Furious investigation, I and other Senators
chose a different path and worked with law enforcement experts and
advocates on both sides of the firearms policy debate to come up with
an effective, sensible approach to put an end to the straw purchasing
and firearms trafficking.
Unfortunately, the same Senators who were so critical of the ATF's
investigative tactics in Arizona and its approach to dealing with a
very serious law enforcement issue declined to support the bipartisan
legislation Senator Collins and I developed to give law enforcement the
tools they need to fight gun trafficking.
I hope the same Senators that were so critical of the ATF and the
Department of Justice for the breakdown in leadership and management at
the agency will not obstruct this nominee and the opportunity to give
the agency the solid footing it needs. If the Fast and Furious
investigation revealed anything, it was that the ATF faces very
significant law enforcement challenges, and that our current laws are
inadequate to provide the tools investigators and prosecutors need to
confront these problems. Let us not compound these difficulties with
continued obstruction of this nominee.
Todd Jones was nominated in January. It is now the last day of July.
For months, I accommodated the ranking member on requests for further
information and delay on the nomination of Todd Jones. He insisted on
the production of documents from the Department of Justice that his
staff had already had access to for months. He insisted that his staff
be able to interview Todd Jones in his capacity as U.S. attorney for
the District of Minnesota, as well as two other Justice Department
officials, in order to try to build a case against another nomination,
that of Tom Perez to be Labor Secretary.
Senator Grassley requested additional background information from the
administration not usually required by the committee for an executive
nomination and he was provided that information. When he sought
information about an ATF operation in Milwaukee, I arranged a
bipartisan briefing from the agency.
Then a member of the ranking member's staff disclosed a private
Office of Special Counsel, OSC, complaint against Todd Jones to the
press. I thought it unfair that the nominee could not publicly defend
his reputation.
An employee complained of ``gross mismanagement and abuse of
authority'' but the OSC closed the file based on lack of evidence. The
other allegation involved alleged retaliation for making the
mismanagement claim, and that subsidiary claim has been referred to
mediation. In deference to the complaining party and at the request of
the investigating agency that the complaint not be made public, it has
not been. I wish it were. It is not substantial or directly related to
Todd Jones. It is certainly not a reason to oppose his confirmation.
I know Senator Grassley has the right to raise concerns, but he has
made it very clear he does not approve of Todd Jones under any
circumstances. I had asked his staff to work with us to get a clearer
understanding of the retaliation complaint. But when we talked to the
complainant, he was willing only to repeat his own allegations,
allegations that are not aimed directly at Mr. Jones but at somebody
else, a mid-level manager.
We asked the complainant to provide the committee access to the
contemporaneous files so we could determine whether this instance was
retaliation or one in a series of disciplinary actions against an
employee spanning several years. We offered to take the information in
confidence, not for the Justice Department but just for members of our
committee. The complainant refused and his lawyer refused to provide
that to us, so I would ask all members to read the complaint
themselves. We have bent over backwards to allow the complainant to
come forward, and he has chosen not to do so.
I would also note for all Senators that we have moved forward on
nominees in the past when there have been pending complaints. For
example, last year a civil suit was filed against a judicial nominee
from Iowa alleging age discrimination and retaliation for raising
management issues against the nominee in her capacity as the U.S.
attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. We conducted a bipartisan
staff investigation into the claims. I listened to the Senators from
Iowa, and we determined we could move forward despite the civil suit
that was pending against the nominee. The nominee was overwhelmingly
confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
Earlier this year, when a defense counsel filed a motion against the
U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico making allegations of
improper activity, we independently examined the matter. The committee
proceeded with that nomination instead of delaying it.
Todd Jones is the ATF's fifth Acting Director since 2006. During that
time 80,000 Americans have been killed with guns. The ATF helps protect
our communities from dangerous criminals, gun violence, and acts of
terror. It is a central piece of our Federal law enforcement strategy.
For too long the position of Director at the ATF has been held hostage
to partisan politics at the expense of public safety. It is time to
make real progress in our efforts to reduce gun violence and protect
the citizens of this great Nation. Today, I encourage all Senators to
take the opportunity to move toward that goal together with the
confirmation of B. Todd Jones to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms, and Explosives.