[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

[[Page S6098]]

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.

[[Page S6099]]

  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.