[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 10, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S181-S182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CABINET NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Senate committees have been working for 
many weeks to process President-Elect Trump's Cabinet nominations. I 
commend the committees and their staffs for their very hard work. Now 
we begin the next phase of this process with committee hearings. In 
fact, it just began this morning in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
  I would like to say a word about our colleague from Alabama. Each of 
us knows Senator Sessions. We have worked with him. We know he cares 
about his country and the Department he will be tasked to lead. We know 
he is a forthright colleague, an experienced lawyer, and someone who 
believes strongly in the rule of law. We know that he will reach across 
the aisle as well.
  He supported President Obama's first Attorney General nominee, Eric 
Holder. He worked with our late colleague Ted Kennedy on prison reform. 
He worked with our current colleague Senator Durbin on sentencing 
reform.
  Senator Durbin, in fact, noted that Senator Sessions is ``a man of 
his word.'' Senator Leahy called him ``wonderful to work with.'' 
Senator Schumer, the Democratic leader, said he is ``straightforward 
and fair.''
  Let me quote from a former Democratic Senate colleague who knows 
Senator Sessions after having served with him for 16 years:

       I always found Jeff to be an honorable and trustworthy 
     person, a smart and good lawyer, and a thoughtful and open-
     minded listener.

  He then continued with this:

       I believe that he will be a principled, fair, and capable 
     Attorney General. If I was in the Senate today, I would vote 
     ``aye'' on his nomination.

  That is the former Democratic candidate for Vice President of the 
United States, Senator Joe Lieberman.
  But it is not just our Democratic colleagues who have praise for 
Senator Sessions. Let me read another letter from one of Senator 
Sessions' constituents in Alabama, Albert F. Turner, Jr. Here is what 
he had to say:

       My family and I have literally been on the front line of 
     the fight for civil rights my whole life. I believe that 
     [Senator Sessions] is someone with whom I, and others in the 
     civil rights community, can work with if given the 
     opportunity. I believe that he will listen, as he has in the 
     past, to the concerns of my community. More than most I am 
     very familiar with him. I believe he will be fair in his 
     application of the law and the Constitution; as such I 
     support his nomination to be the next Attorney General of the 
     United States.

  Now, a lot of unfair things have been said about our colleague from 
Alabama in recent weeks. I am glad he is finally getting the chance to 
show Americans and the committee the Senator Sessions we all know and 
serve with. I look forward to the Senate's fair treatment of our 
colleague's forthcoming nomination, just as it fairly processed an 
incoming President Obama's pick for Attorney General--a nominee, whom, 
as I noted, Senator Sessions supported.
  So let me turn to a larger point. The nominations process for an 
incoming President is important. As President Obama recently said when 
he met with President-Elect Trump, the Presidency ``is bigger than any 
one person, and that's why ensuring a smooth transition is so 
important.''

[[Page S182]]

  I certainly agree. When President Obama was elected, Republicans 
worked across the aisle to confirm seven--seven--of his nominees on 
inauguration day and five more by the end of his first week. These 
nominees were hardly centrists. We had reservations about many of them. 
But Democrats had won the Presidency and the Senate, and we hadn't. I 
ask our friends across the aisle to now demonstrate the same courtesy 
and seriousness for President-Elect Trump's nominees, especially his 
national security team.
  The Senate has a longstanding tradition of confirming the Cabinet 
nominees of a newly elected administration in a timely fashion, and the 
Senate and its committees are now following the same standard for 
President-Elect Trump and his nominees as we have for past Presidents.
  I know some are urging Democrats to play partisan games and needless 
delay. I hope they will not. The American people will see through it, 
anyway.
  Here is a perfect example. The Democratic leader has been quoting a 
letter I sent to then-Senator Harry Reid in 2009. He apparently missed 
the fact that the letter he has been quoting was not only sent after 
every one of President Obama's eligible nominees had hearings but after 
all but one had been confirmed. So it is actually an important reminder 
of how Republicans fairly treated incoming President Obama's Cabinet 
nominees and how Democrats should now do the same.
  This is time for serious consideration and cooperation. Americans 
aren't looking for partisan games. We are a nation at war. We are a 
nation grappling with a slow economy. Americans want the incoming 
President to have his national and economic security teams in place to 
get to work. They want us to work together across the aisle to get this 
done.
  That is what Republicans did in 2009, it is what we are doing now, 
and it is what we invite our Democratic friends to join us in getting 
accomplished.

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