[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 20 (Monday, February 6, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S963-S964]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLOTURE MOTION
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
mandatory quorum call be waived.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Senate the pending
cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The bill clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate,
do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination
of Thomas Price, of Georgia, to be Secretary of Health and
Human Services.
Mitch McConnell, David Perdue, Johnny Isakson, Tom
Cotton, Mike Crapo, James E. Risch, Jerry Moran, Pat
Roberts, Roy Blunt, Lamar Alexander, John Barrasso,
Orrin G. Hatch, Jeff Flake, John Cornyn, Shelley Moore
Capito, John Thune, Richard Burr.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum
call has been waived.
The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the
nomination of Thomas Price, of Georgia, to be Secretary of Health and
Human Services shall be brought to a close?
The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: The Senator
from Alabama (Mr. Sessions).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 51, nays 48, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 60 Ex.]
YEAS--51
Alexander
Barrasso
Blunt
Boozman
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Cochran
Collins
Corker
Cornyn
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Enzi
Ernst
Fischer
Flake
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hatch
Heller
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johnson
Kennedy
Lankford
Lee
McCain
McConnell
Moran
Murkowski
Paul
Perdue
Portman
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Scott
Shelby
Sullivan
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Wicker
Young
NAYS--48
Baldwin
Bennet
Blumenthal
Booker
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Coons
Cortez Masto
Donnelly
Duckworth
Durbin
Feinstein
Franken
Gillibrand
Harris
Hassan
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Hirono
Kaine
King
Klobuchar
Leahy
Manchin
Markey
McCaskill
Menendez
Merkley
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Peters
Reed
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Shaheen
Stabenow
Tester
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Sessions
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 51, the nays are
48.
The motion is agreed to.
The Senator from Alabama.
Farewell to the Senate
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues in the Senate.
Serving in this body for 20 years has been one of the great honors of
my life. I remember coming up when I was running for the Senate and
going to the Republican luncheon. They said: Well, you have a few
minutes. You can say something, but don't talk very long because people
don't want to hear a lot from you, frankly.
So I told them that I could think of no greater honor than to
represent the people of Alabama in the greatest deliberative body in
the history of the world. That is what I feel about this body. I want
to say, I appreciate the full debate we have had. I want to thank those
who, after it all, found sufficient confidence in me to cast their vote
to confirm me as the next Attorney General of the United States of
America.
I have to tell you, I fully understand the august responsibilities of
that office. I served as United States attorney for 12 years and
assistant United States attorney for a little over 2 years. During that
time, the very idea of those great leaders in Washington leading those
departments I served under make it almost impossible for me to
conceive, I am that person and will have that opportunity and that
responsibility.
So I understand the seriousness of it. I have an interest in law
enforcement. I have an interest in the rule of law. So I want to thank
those of you who supported me and had confidence in me. I want to thank
President Donald Trump. He believes in the rule of law. He believes in
protecting the American people from crime and violence. He believes in
a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest,
within bounds, and those are things that may from time to time come
before the Office of Attorney General.
I look forward to lawfully and properly advancing those items and
others that we as a body support, and the American people believe in.
The Attorney General--this is a law enforcement office first and
foremost. People expect the Department defend us, defend us from
terrorists, defend us from criminals, defend the country from
fraudsters who raid the U.S. Treasury time and time again and too often
are not being caught or held to account for it.
I believe that is a big responsibility of the U.S. Attorney General
and the whole Department of Justice. As a former Federal prosecutor, I
worked regularly, nights, weekends, and became personal friends with
fabulous Federal investigative agents. They give their lives, place
their lives on the line
[[Page S964]]
for us to promote public safety, to try to do the right thing for
America.
Sometimes people think of them in terms of taking away our freedoms.
That is not so. They are out there every day putting their lives on the
line to advance our freedoms, to protect our liberties, to protect
public safety, to stop terrorism that threatens our government.
So I feel strongly about that. I had the honor to lead some of the
finest assistant United States attorneys in America. Our goal--well,
before I became an assistant, I was told that Mobile had the best U.S.
attorney's office in America.
So when I came back as U.S. attorney some 6 years later, I told them
that was our goal. We were going to have the best United States
attorney's office in America. What a great time we had. We had
wonderful people. They worked nights and weekends to prepare their
cases. We went before great Federal judges. It was a glorious time. It
was really a special time.
I will never ever forget that. I was before the Judiciary committee
in 1986, and Senator Kennedy--later my friend--spoke harshly about me.
It was on the TV. They would show his statement. He said I should
resign my office. So a few minutes later I had a chance to say
something. I said: Senator Kennedy, what you said breaks my heart.
Nothing I have ever done have I been more proud of than serving as
United States Attorney. I still believe that. Nothing I have ever done
am I more proud of than the work we did in that little office in
Mobile, AL, representing the United States of America.
You go into court, you stand before the judge, and you say: The
United States is ready. I represent the United States of America in a
litigation. So this is a big deal. So I would say to you, friends and
colleagues, that this is a special honor. I feel it in my bones. I hope
and pray I can be worthy of the trust you have given me. I will do my
best to do that.
Let me comment a minute on the heated debate we have had here in the
Senate on my nomination and others. It was an intense election. There
is no doubt about that. There have been strong feelings expressed
during the election and throughout this confirmation process. Sometimes
we have philosophical disagreements, just sincere disagreements about
policy, what is right and what is wrong, what the law says, what it
does not say.
I believe words ought to be given their fair and plain meaning. Words
are not tools that can be manipulated to make it say what you want it
to say. I believe words have objective meanings. So sometimes we have
differences about that, but that is what elections are about. I have
always liked the debate. I have always enjoyed participating in this
great body, where we are free to speak and be able to advocate for the
values that we have.
But I don't think we have such a classical disagreement that we can't
get together. I have always tried to keep my disagreements from being
personal. I have always tried to be courteous to my colleagues. Still,
tension is built in the system. It is there. The plain fact is that our
Nation does have room for Republicans and Democrats. That is what
freedom is all about. I am fairly firm, I have to say, in my
convictions, but that does not mean that all of us have to agree on the
same thing.
We need latitude in our relationships. So let's agree on what we can
agree on, and I suggest that to my colleagues as I leave here, and take
action where we can agree on things, but denigrating people whom you
disagree with I think is not a healthy trend for our body.
After I had been here for a number of years, I had gotten along
pretty well with Senator Kennedy on the Judiciary Committee. He asked
me to be the lead sponsor with him on the significant, pretty
controversial bill to eliminate prison rape. There were a number of
honorable people who opposed it, some friends of mine. He said: I want
to do this with you. People asked me: Did you ever have a
reconciliation? Did he apologize?
He said: I want to do this bill with you. And I knew what that meant.
I appreciated that. I said: I want to do this bill with you. And so we
were able to pass that bill together. It was a moment of reconciliation
that meant a lot to me. I think he appreciated it too. We later got
involved in another major piece of legislation, just the two of us,
that would have established a portable savings plan for young workers
like the Federal thrift plan.
About that time, the financial crisis hit, and then he became ill and
it never came to fruition. But reconciliation is important. We ought to
do that in this body. We ought to try to fight for our values and not
give an inch. You don't have to back down if you believe you are right,
and you should not back down.
But there are ways that we can get along personally. I would say that
would be my prayer for this body; that in the future maybe the
intensity of the last few weeks would die down and maybe somehow we
would get along better.
So, colleagues, I can't express how appreciative I am for those of
you who stood by me during this difficult time. I could start calling
all their names, but it would not be appropriate. I want to say again,
I appreciate the President and his confidence in me, and by your vote
tonight, I have been given a real challenge. I will do my best to be
worthy of it. I look forward to working with each of you during that
time and maybe make sure that we have a good open door at the
Department of Justice.
My wife has picked up pretty quickly that we have a chef, and we can
actually invite people for lunch or breakfast there. Maybe we can do
that.
Finally, let me thank my family because without their support, I
could not be here. It is great. My children have been so engaged in
this. They were young when my 1986 adventure occurred. Now they are
grown. Your support and affirmation have meant much to me.
Letter Of Resignation
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I present to the body my letter of
resignation, which I ask unanimous consent be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the
Record, as follows:
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC, February 8, 2017.
The Hon. Robert Bentley,
Governor of the State of Alabama,
Montgomery, AL.
Dear Governor Bentley: I hereby give notice that I will
retire from the Office of United States Senator for the State
of Alabama. Therefore, I tender my resignation at 11:55 pm
Eastern Standard Time on February 8, 2017.
Very truly yours,
Jeff Sessions,
U.S. Senator.
Mr. SESSIONS. Thank you all.
(Applause, Senators rising.)
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