[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 152 (Tuesday, October 29, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7603-S7604]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Archuleta Nomination

  That is not why I came to the floor, but I thank the Senator for 
letting me join in that colloquy with the Senator from Ohio. The reason 
I came to the floor is to say a word on behalf of the President's 
nominee to be our next Director of the Office of Personnel Management. 
We have not had a confirmed OPM Director for the last half year. If you 
look across the Federal Government, the executive branch of the Federal 
Government, it reminds me a lot of what I call Swiss cheese, executive 
branch Swiss cheese.
  We start with the Department of Homeland Security. We do not have a 
confirmed Secretary. We have one nominated, just nominated, just 
starting to go through the vetting process in the Senate. We have not 
had one for a month. The Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security--we do 
not have a confirmed Deputy Secretary. We have had ``acting'' for a 
number of weeks now, months. While the people who are in the acting 
capacity are very good people, very able people, it is not the same as 
having a confirmed Secretary of Homeland Security or confirmed Deputy 
Secretary.
  There are any number of other positions in Homeland Security. As 
chair of Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, I probably 
focus more on that than on the OMB, Office of Management and Budget, 
trying to make sure that Sylvia Burwell from Hinton, WV--the Presiding 
Officer knows her well. As a guy who grew up in West Virginia a little 
bit, born there, spent some time in Hinton, I have a huge respect for 
her. We worked very hard to get her management team, her senior 
leadership team confirmed. They are confirmed. She has a great team. We 
need to make sure that in our other departments we have from the top to 
way down the ranks strong people in confirmed positions.
  OPM, Office of Personnel Management. The President nominated a woman 
I had never heard of earlier this year. He nominated a woman named 
Katherine Archuleta. Katherine Archuleta--I never met her, never heard 
of her. The first thing I learned about her is she has been the 
political director in the President's reelection campaign. She must 
have done a pretty good job if the results were to be examined. Maybe 
some people are troubled by that. If we stopped there, that does not 
define who she is or what she has done.
  If somebody looked at my resume while I have been a Senator, if they 
think that is all I have ever done in my

[[Page S7604]]

life, they would be wrong. I have been privileged to be Governor of my 
State, leader, and, as the Presiding Officer has, chairman of the 
National Governors Association, one of the great privileges of my life. 
I was privileged to be a Congressman for a little bit, treasurer of my 
State, and before that a naval flight officer for 20 some years, 
retired Navy captain. That is who I am. That is not all of who I am, 
but that is a better resume. If people say all I have ever done is my 
current job or my last job, they would say: Well, he is not very well 
rounded.
  I want us to take a minute and say--I am going to date myself on 
this, but a guy named Paul Harvey used to do the news. He used to say 
page 1, and then he would say page 2. I am going to go to page 2. Page 
2 is a little resume of some other things she has done with her life. I 
want to quote one of our old colleagues, Ken Salazar, who has known her 
for decades and hear what he has to say about her. She was born and 
raised in Colorado, I think has spent almost more than half of her life 
there. She has been, from time to time, among other things, chief of 
staff at the U.S. Department of Labor. She did that for several years. 
She also served as senior advisor on policy and initiatives for the 
city and county of Denver, CO. There are more people who live in the 
city and county around Denver than live in a lot of States, including 
my own. She has done that job.
  Before that, a number of years ago, she had a number of roles in the 
office of mayor of Denver, for almost a decade, including deputy chief 
of staff. In a city that size, again as big or bigger than a number of 
States, that is a lot of responsibility.
  She has been a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of 
Energy.
  She has also served at the U.S. Department of Transportation, first 
as deputy chief of staff, and then later as chief of staff.
  She has been a professor at the University of Denver. She has done 
all kinds of things. But she is a whole lot more than what people see 
and say: Well, I know what her last job was. She has done a whole lot 
before that. I think that helps prepare her for this job.
  There has been a bunch of people who have been nominated to serve as 
Office of Personnel Management Director since I guess the 1970s. I 
think this is the first time we have ever had a situation where the 
President's nominee--I do not care what party, Democrat or Republican--
where the OPM nominee has required cloture or even a rollcall vote 
since the agency was created in 1978. That is 35 years ago.
  I want to quote Ken Salazar, one of my dearest friends, who was a 
Senator, went on to become Secretary of the Interior, who has known 
Katherine Archuleta for 25, 30 years, really all of her adult life. 
Here is what Ken Salazar says about Katherine Archuleta. He says she is 
a ``terrific'' human being. He goes on to say she ``helped create 
modern Denver'' as we know it as deputy chief of staff through Mayor 
Pena. She led economic development efforts throughout the city. She was 
instrumental in the creation of the new Denver International Airport. 
Ken went on to say she was ``a star of the Clinton team in the U.S. 
Department of Transportation.'' Star.
  I say to my friends and colleagues, we have to get past this 
situation--I do not care if it is a Democrat President or Republican 
President--where we leave these gaping holes in leadership in confirmed 
positions. It is not good for our country; it is not good for these 
departments; it is not good for morale; it is not good for efficiency. 
We are interested in getting work done.
  You can disable the government by shutting it down or you can disable 
the government and make it less effective, less efficient, by making 
sure we do not have key people in the top leadership positions. It 
makes a difference if people are confirmed as secretaries, deputy 
secretaries, and these other positions.
  As the agency responsible for managing our Federal workforce, OPM's 
mission is critical to ensuring that our government runs efficiently. 
Unfortunately, vacancies at the top levels of leadership have limited 
OPM's ability to fulfill its mandate. They have backlogs in terms of 
the processing they are supposed to be doing in job applications and 
others, people applying for pensions. They need to be addressed.
  In Katherine Archuleta's hearing before a subcommittee chaired by 
Senator Tester, one of the things she made clear is that she would make 
that her priority, going after the backlog, which I would say God bless 
her if she is confirmed. I hope she will be.
  But at any given moment, we are lacking critical leadership in any 
number of positions in just about every agency. It undermines the 
effectiveness of our government. While Congress and the administration 
have taken some steps to address this problem, the fact remains we 
still have more work to do to ensure we have got the talented people in 
place to make these critical decisions.
  This week, we consider the President's nomination of Katherine 
Archuleta to be the next Director of OPM, Office of Personnel 
Management. I have talked a little bit about her background. One of the 
other people who knows her pretty well, another Senator from Colorado, 
is Senator Udall. She was actually introduced at her confirmation 
hearings along with Michael Bennet. Here is what Senator Udall said 
about Katrina Archuleta. He said, ``Throughout her career, Katherine 
has demonstrated her ability to lead, to motivate and to work 
constructively with a diverse range of people and personalities.''
  Her story is a story of firsts. Although neither of her parents 
completed high school, they worked tirelessly to create better 
opportunities for their children. Throughout her career, she served as 
an example for women and Latinos and would be the first Latina Director 
of OPM.
  The President nominated her to this critical position back in May. We 
held a hearing to consider her nomination--Senator Jon Tester held it. 
We voted her out of committee shortly thereafter. At her confirmation 
hearing, Ms. Archuleta committed to quickly taking steps to identify 
some of OPM's challenges, such as continuing to implement the 
multistate plan under the Affordable Care Act, reducing the retirement 
claims backlog to ensure retirees receive their full pension benefits 
without serious delays, which many retirees see today.
  As to the recruiting and retaining the next generation of Federal 
employees, I think we have a nominee who is qualified. We have a 
nominee who has been vetted. We have a nominee who is ready to go to 
work. It is our responsibility to give her a swift vote, a thoughtful 
vote, but a swift vote here on the Senate floor, I hope this week, so 
she can go to work, take the reins at OPM, and begin directing this 
critical agency with oversight from us.
  When the Presiding Officer was Governor of his State of West 
Virginia, when I was privileged to be Governor of my State, the 
tradition in Delaware is the Governor would nominate the people to 
serve on his or her cabinet. The tradition in our State was to nominate 
division directors under the cabinet secretaries. The tradition in my 
State is that the legislature, the senate to which the nominees were 
sent, would hold hearings, and would vote up or down without delay on 
those nominations. I think in the 8 years I was privileged to serve as 
Governor of my State, every one of them was confirmed. I do not think I 
ever lost a nomination for a cabinet secretary or for division 
director. That is the way we do business in Delaware. That is the way 
we ought to do business here.
  If you have a nominee who is qualified, who has good integrity, is 
going to work hard, surround themselves with good people and has a 
track record he or she can be proud of, that nominee deserves a vote. 
Let's give this nominee a vote and let's give her a chance to go to 
work.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.