[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 34 (Monday, February 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1432-S1436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Nomination of Ryan Zinke

  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I am very pleased to see the majority of 
the Senate move forward and vote on the nomination of a fellow 
westerner, Montana's Congressman, and the next Secretary of the 
Interior, Ryan Zinke. I appreciate Ryan's willingness to serve in this 
very important post. The Department of the Interior is vital to 
Montana's economy, and I am glad to see someone from the West selected 
to lead it.
  The job of the Interior Secretary is critically important, especially 
today as America's public lands come under attack by way too many folks 
who want to see them transferred to the States or outright sold off. 
Selling them off to the States is the first step in selling our public 
lands to the highest bidder, and we can't let that happen.
  Congressman Zinke has publicly said that he will not sell off our 
public lands nor transfer them to the States, and in Montana, your word 
is your bond. For that, I am pleased to support his nomination.
  Congressman Zinke's to-do list is no doubt long, and I look forward 
to working with him to check that list off for the people of Montana.
  Montana is home to some of the world's most prized public lands, 
including Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks and the Bob Marshall 
Wilderness. The fact is, our public lands are huge economic drivers, 
creating and sustaining more than 64,000 jobs in Montana alone through 
our outdoor recreation economy and thereby pumping billions of dollars 
back into our local economies.
  That is why, when a foreign mining company threatened the gateway to 
Yellowstone National Park, I was pleased that Congressman Zinke 
expressed interest in joining me and local

[[Page S1433]]

businesses and community leaders to protect it. I look forward to 
working with him to permanently safeguard the doorstep of Yellowstone 
National Park because Montanans know there are some places more 
valuable than gold, and Yellowstone is one of those places.
  I feel confident that Congressman Zinke will handle the issues before 
him with Montana common sense--issues like our national parks, and 
coming up with a responsible solution to the deferred maintenance 
backlog that is wreaking havoc on our national park system; the Land 
and Water Conservation Fund, and how to work with Congress and work in 
this administration to ensure full and devoted funding to initiatives 
like LWCF, the visionary Land and Water Conservation Fund; in Indian 
country, living up to our trust responsibilities that we owe to 
America's sovereign Indian nations; and in resource development, how to 
responsibly manage our public lands for energy and resource 
development, and how to balance that with respect to clean water and 
clean air and wildlife.
  Of course, there are always some issues where Congressman Zinke and I 
don't see eye-to-eye, but he has publicly committed to working with 
Congress to try and address some of the most important issues of this 
Nation's economy as it applies to our public lands. Montana's economy 
is no exception, and I will take him at his word.
  As a Montanan, I know how important the Department of the Interior is 
to our way of life, and I am optimistic that Congressman Zinke will do 
right by Montana and the country in his new role. Montana will be 
watching. For that matter, the country will be watching, and I know 
Congressman Zinke will make us proud.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, believe it or not, there are some smart 
people out there in America who are not billionaires. I know it doesn't 
seem like it as we debate yet another megarich Wall Street titan to 
head another department in the Federal Government, but billionaires do 
not actually have a monopoly on wisdom in this country.
  But it doesn't seem that this is what our new President thinks. If 
they all get confirmed, Donald Trump's Cabinet will have a net wealth 
that is greater than one-third of all Americans. Think about that for a 
second. The Cabinet of the United States will have a net wealth all 
together that is greater than one-third of every single American--the 
poorest third of Americans--if you put them all together.
  He has nominated millionaires and billionaires to head the Department 
of Education, the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury, 
the Department of Commerce--the nominee we are now debating--and the 
Department of Health and Human Services. He even nominated two of his 
rich friends to head the Army and the Navy.
  I heard President Trump talk over and over the past 2 years about how 
he was going to drain the swamp once he got here. As far as I can tell, 
all he has done thus far is just sell the swamp to his rich friends.
  I am not saying that billionaires like Wilbur Ross aren't smart. You 
have to be pretty savvy in order to make all of that money for yourself 
or for your investors. There is honor in making money. That is the 
American dream--to have the opportunity, if you want it, to become very 
rich, to become very affluent, to create a business that makes you, 
your family, and maybe those who invested in it very well off. I have a 
lot of friends who have made a lot of money in and around Wall Street. 
I don't begrudge the fact that they did it. But making a lot of money 
for yourself doesn't automatically equate to the ability to run an 
agency or to run a country.
  President Trump made a whole bunch of money for himself, but his 
first month on the job as President has been a series of not just 
domestic embarrassments but international embarrassments--writing 
Executive orders without even checking with the Cabinet to see if what 
he is doing is legal or illegal; not being able to fill positions in 
the White House or in Federal agencies--the number of foreign diplomats 
who tell me they have no idea whom to call right now in the Federal 
Government is as embarrassing as it is maddening--getting into public 
spats with even our most reliable allies like Germany and Australia; 
spending most of his time in pitch battles with the media and his own 
staff, rather than working with us on trying to solve the problems of 
this country.
  Donald Trump is good at making money for himself, but those skills, 
as we have found, do not translate very well to running a country. 
Maybe that is because when the entire focus of your entire life is 
making as much money as humanly possible for yourself, you cannot pivot 
on a dime all of a sudden and start putting all of your energy into 
helping other people. Maybe life doesn't work like that. So that is 
what really worries me about these billionaire nominees.
  A few weeks ago, I was on the floor talking about the now-Secretary 
of State Rex Tillerson. He spent his career at Exxon helping to build a 
very successful business, but in doing so, he hurt a lot of people. 
Exxon deals with horrible dictators who used those oil revenues in 
order to help murder thousands of their people. That was good for 
business, but it was awful for humanity.
  Andy Puzder, who is no longer a nominee for the Department of Labor, 
openly mocked his workers. He suggested they just got in the way of the 
efficient operation of his business, and he pined for the day when 
robots would replace them.
  Now we are debating Wilbur Ross to be Secretary of Commerce. Wilbur 
Ross made a lot of money for himself, but he has taken advantage of the 
very bad trade deals that this body has passed in order to offshore 
thousands of U.S. jobs. One such company that he owned, a textile 
company, employed 4,700 workers in factories in North Carolina and 
South Carolina. That was inefficient in Wilbur Ross's desire to make as 
much money for himself as he could. So he took those 4,700 jobs and he 
shipped them to Guatemala. He said: This project will benefit from 
Guatemala's realistic wages.
  When Mr. Ross acquired an auto parts factory in Carlisle, PA, a 
decade ago, in order to make more money for himself, he took a hard 
line with the workers, demanding cuts in wages and benefits that were 
worth between 25 and 30 percent of the workers' earnings. That is what 
he needed to do in order to squeeze as much money out of that company 
to make himself a few extra million dollars. When the union rejected 
the demands of Mr. Ross and when the workers rejected those demands, he 
shut the plant down and moved their work to North Carolina, to Canada, 
and to Mexico.
  Wilbur Ross, Rex Tillerson, Steve Mnuchin, and Andy Puzder spent 
their entire lives obsessed with making as much money for themselves as 
possible and not letting anyone's good fortune get in their way. They 
fired workers, they foreclosed on people's homes, they shipped jobs 
overseas, and they supported brutal dictators--all of it justifiable as 
long as it meant they would make more money for themselves and for 
their investors. How on Earth has that become a qualification to serve 
the public, to serve at the highest level of the U.S. Government?
  I am on the floor today to oppose the nomination of Wilbur Ross to be 
Secretary of Commerce--not because he didn't do a good job enriching 
himself through the myriad of businesses that he owned and operated 
during his time in the private sector but because during that time he 
trampled on the rights of workers, he offshored jobs, and he eliminated 
people's livelihoods in order to make more money for himself. All of 
the things that Candidate Trump talked about taking on were the things 
that Wilbur Ross was doing as he took advantage of these trade 
agreements to kill jobs in the United States and offshore them to other 
places.
  President Trump said he was going to fight for the working guy. He 
isn't. He is doing the exact opposite. He is turning the keys of this 
government over to his wealthy friends so that they can potentially 
profit off of taxpayer dollars, so that they can deregulate the 
industries that, by the way, they are going to return to when their 
term is

[[Page S1434]]

up. They will get richer, just like they have through their entire 
lives, while the rest of us pay for it.
  It is time for us to recognize that billionaires in this country do 
not have a monopoly on wisdom. Sometimes the very skills that allow you 
to make a fortune for yourself don't equate to the skills necessary to 
fight for everybody else through public service. I would urge my 
colleagues to oppose the nomination of Wilbur Ross to be Secretary of 
Commerce.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I rise to voice my strong support for the 
nomination of Wilbur Ross to be Secretary of Commerce. We held a 
hearing on his nomination on January 18, 2017. Mr. Ross has also 
completed the required paperwork and responded to all of the committee 
questions for the record. Five weeks ago, on January 24, the Commerce 
Committee acted by voice vote to favorably report his nomination to the 
floor. We invoked cloture on Mr. Ross's nomination by a vote margin of 
66 to 31 on February 17, with 15 Democratic Senators voting to invoke 
cloture.
  I am glad the Senate will finally confirm his nomination today after 
a long and unnecessary delay. When he is confirmed, Mr. Ross will bring 
decades of business, entrepreneurial, and civic experience to this 
important position.
  Mr. Ross is perhaps best known for his expertise in revitalizing 
distressed businesses, such as those in the U.S. steel industry. At a 
time when most investors had abandoned the industry, he organized the 
International Steel Group in 2002, and through acquisitions, he made it 
the largest integrated steel company in North America. Later, it merged 
with Mittal Steel to form the largest steel company in the world. It is 
for this reason that all of the major steel-industry labor unions also 
support his confirmation.
  I ask unanimous consent that the letter of support for the 
confirmation of Wilbur Ross from the United Steelworkers, dated January 
9, 2017, be printed in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
  Mr. Ross's nomination is also supported by a bipartisan group of 
former Secretaries of Commerce, including Secretary William M. Daley, 
who served as Commerce Secretary under President Clinton, and later as 
Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama.
  Mr. Ross's strong record of achievement in business led Bloomberg 
Businessweek to name him one of the ``50 Most Influential People in 
Global Finance'' in 2011. It is also why he is the only person elected 
to both the Turnaround Management Hall of Fame and the Private Equity 
Hall of Fame.
  Mr. Ross's nomination comes at an important time in our Nation's 
economic recovery. I believe his extensive management experience in the 
private sector and his understanding of the challenges faced by workers 
and businesses alike will equip him well for the job of leading the 
Department of Commerce.
  This large Department, which has 12 different bureaus and nearly 
47,000 employees located in all 50 States and around the world, 
oversees a diverse array of issues, from trade to fishery management 
and from weather forecasting to the Census Bureau. Mr. Ross's 
experience turning around businesses should help them anticipate and 
mitigate the risk of major programs like FirstNet, the independent 
authority charged with creating a nationwide broadband network for 
first responders and the acquisition of critical weather satellites by 
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  I would also like to underscore that the collaboration between the 
public and private sectors is one of the hallmarks of the Department's 
work, as exemplified by the ongoing development of cyber security best 
practices and standards, which the Commerce Committee has strongly 
endorsed. I look forward to Mr. Ross continuing his collaboration and 
strengthening it where necessary.
  I believe Mr. Ross's business know-how and intelligence make him an 
excellent candidate to serve as the next Secretary of Commerce. I 
strongly support his nomination. I hope my colleagues on both sides of 
the aisle will support his nomination as well. It is high time we got 
this position filled and got this experienced person--someone who has a 
wide range of know-how all across the business sector and our economy--
into a position where he can make a difference in helping to create 
jobs and grow this economy for our country.
  I see that my colleague from Florida, Senator Nelson, the ranking 
Democrat on the Commerce Committee, is here as well. I would love to 
yield the floor to him and hear what he has to say about this 
nomination.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                          United Steelworkers,

                                  Pittsburgh, PA, January 9, 2017.
     United States Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator: On behalf of the United Steelworkers (USW) 
     representing hundreds of thousands of American workers, we 
     urge you to support Wilbur Ross, Chairman and Chief Strategy 
     Officer of WL Ross & Co., LLC, to serve as Secretary of the 
     U.S. Department of Commerce.
       Mr. Ross has shown a deep commitment to the future of our 
     domestic manufacturing sector. Many of us have seen firsthand 
     how he has worked to keep production and manufacturing jobs 
     here in the U.S. The USW worked directly with Mr. Ross to 
     save thousands of jobs in the steel industry at a time of 
     crisis. In fact, there are now thousands of our members in 
     the steel and auto parts sectors that are working because of 
     our ability to work together to save a critical piece of 
     America's industrial base.
       He knows what it takes to get the economy back on track, 
     create jobs, and keep jobs from leaving the United States and 
     build a framework so that American workers and companies are 
     competitive and innovative in the 21st Century. There is much 
     work to be done to restore America's manufacturing base and 
     the good jobs it supports. As Secretary, Wilbur Ross will be 
     someone who has a deep understanding of the challenges this 
     vital sector faces.
       We urge the Senate to move swiftly on his nomination and 
     look forward to working with him to create more jobs for 
     American workers.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Leo W. Gerard,
                                      USW International President.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I, too, support Wilbur Ross. I know him. 
He lives in Palm Beach. I think he is a very good selection to be our 
next Secretary of Commerce. He is certainly qualified to do this job. 
He gave extensive answers during his confirmation hearing before the 
Commerce Committee. He has accumulated significant experience in 
dealing with the international business community, and he has detailed 
to the committee--in our examination of him, he detailed many of his 
ideas.
  There have been some questions that have been raised about some of 
his business ties, particularly involving some of his foreign 
activities. One example is the Bank of Cyprus, which has significant 
levels of Russian investment. In the wake of the former National 
Security Advisor, General Flynn's resignation and under the overhanging 
question of the unlawful Russian involvement in a U.S. election, I 
certainly thought that it was prudent to get Mr. Ross's assurances on 
this matter in his dealings with the Bank of Cyprus and certain 
Russians who were involved in the Bank of Cyprus, so on February 16, I 
sent him a letter, along with four other members of the Commerce 
Committee, requesting information on any contact Russian investors in 
the Bank of Cyprus may have with officials from the Trump campaign or 
the Trump organization. I have spoken with Mr. Ross on at least two 
occasions since sending him the letter, one of those being today. He 
has verbally reiterated to me that he only had one meeting, 
approximately an hour, with one of the bank's Russian investors and 
that it occurred in 2014. The timing is important--2014--because that 
was before the Presidential campaign. He also assured me that he knows 
of no loans or interaction between the bank and anyone affiliated with 
the Trump campaign or organization.
  Mr. Ross has been forthcoming with me, and I believe him in what he 
has told me, that it is true to his belief. But I want to say that at 
the same

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time, the White House and the way they have handled this matter is not 
doing Wilbur Ross any favors. There are a number of Senators on the 
Commerce Committee who are extremely troubled and frustrated that the 
White House has chosen to sit on Mr. Ross's written response to the 
questions I and other Senators have posed, and they have refused to 
provide them to the Senate prior to tonight's vote. This is despite 
repeated phone calls to the White House--repeated phone calls. It is 
also despite repeated phone calls from me to Mr. Ross to ask him to get 
the White House off the dime since he has told me he has already filled 
out the answers in writing--they are just sitting in the White House. 
So there is someone in the White House who is making the decision that 
they don't want the Senate to have, in writing, what Mr. Ross has told 
me verbally in a private conversation.
  If that is any indication of the level of transparency Congress and 
the American people can expect from this White House, then it appears 
that there is going to be a lot left on the floor and there is going to 
be the appearance of being in the dark on a lot of important matters. 
That is not the way you do confirmations. You do it in a collaborative 
fashion, especially when you have a good nominee like Wilbur Ross. The 
President proposes, the Congress disposes. The President nominates, the 
Congress confirms.
  Not only is this lack of transparency unsettling, it is behavior that 
everyone in this Senate should agree is unacceptable and should not be 
tolerated. I do not want this to be taken out on Wilbur Ross because of 
the administration's secretive behavior. Instead, as I said at the 
outset, following my colleague, the chairman of the committee, I am 
going to urge our colleagues to support his nomination, but the problem 
is that Wilbur Ross is going to get fewer ``yes'' votes than if the 
White House would release his written statements to all of those 
Senators' questions.
  As I said, I know Wilbur Ross. He is a good man. One of the reasons, 
aside from this problem of communication with the White House, is that 
Wilbur Ross brought forth candid answers about the work of the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA. That agency, which is a 
part of the Department of Commerce, impacts the daily lives of every 
single American. NOAA provides the satellite data that is critical to 
observing hurricanes and severe weather and everyday forecasts that we 
have now come to rely on, that we pull up on our smartphones to find 
out what the weather is going to be. Where do you think that comes 
from? A lot of it comes from data from NOAA satellites.
  Through the National Weather Service, NOAA provides the weather 
forecasts that drive this economy, answering questions like whether a 
farmer's crops are going to get rain today or warning of dangerous 
tornadoes, particularly plaguing the State of the Presiding Officer. Of 
course, we remember the ones that just devastated parts of Georgia and 
Florida just a few weeks ago.
  The National Ocean Service tells us if ships will have enough 
clearance to get their cargo into a port on time because it often 
depends on the tide as to how much depth there is with that heavy load 
of cargo, if they can get in the channel.
  NOAA also provides world-class science regarding atmospheric 
conditions, including climate change and its impacts. My State of 
Florida, the impacts of climate change--we are ground zero. It is not 
unusual now that at seasonal monthly high tides, the streets of Miami 
Beach are flooded, and city wellfields have now had to be moved further 
to the west away from the Atlantic Ocean because of the rise of sea 
level and therefore the saltwater intrusion into the freshwater 
aquifer. Since 2006, Miami Beach has flooded significantly more often 
than it used to. Rain-related flooding events in southeast Florida have 
increased by 33 percent, and tide-related flooding has increased by a 
whopping 400 percent. That is not good for business.
  We simply cannot afford to deny what is happening. The impacts of 
climate change are affecting Florida. They are also affecting a lot of 
other places around the world, read: Bangladesh.
  NOAA quite literally saves lives and property, so naturally I fully 
expect any nominee for Secretary of Commerce to unequivocally support 
the ability of the experts at NOAA to do what they do best: collect the 
data, do the research, and provide critical products and services to 
the public free from political interference and free from censorship.
  The Department of Commerce has three Nobel laurate scientists who are 
employees. While some of the nominees for other key administration 
posts have either been less than forthright, less than committal, or 
less than knowledgeable about the very real threat posed by climate 
change, Wilbur Ross candidly and explicitly assured me during his 
nomination hearing in our Commerce Committee that he believes--and I 
will quote him--that ``science should be left to the scientists.'' I 
urge his fellow Cabinet nominees to follow suit. Don't do what we have 
seen--the intimidation techniques of saying that you can't use the term 
``climate change'' or ``sea level rise.'' Let the scientists do their 
work. Wilbur Ross also assured me that he would work collaboratively 
``to address the impacts of changes in sea level and ocean temperatures 
on coastal communities and fisheries.''

  So I want to say to the Senate that I appreciate Wilbur Ross's 
candor, his commitment, and his recognition that the important weather 
and climate work being done in NOAA directly benefits commerce. I am 
confident he is going to follow through.
  I also want to thank him, at his age, for offering himself for public 
service. This is a very schooled, experienced individual.
  I hope this hiccup with the White House not being transparent and not 
returning what he has already written as answers to the Senator's 
questions--this problem--is going to disappear and, that rather than 
hinder him, as they have, they will instead support him, as they 
should.
  For that reason, I am here to ask my colleagues to vote yes on Wilbur 
Ross's nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, creating jobs, fostering economic 
growth, maintaining sustainable development, and improving standards of 
living of all Americans are central tasks for any administration, and 
they are the mission of the Commerce Department.
  Congress created the Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903, and 
then renamed the Department of Commerce in 1913 as the offices working 
on labor were transferred to the Department of Labor. Through 12 
bureaus and nearly 47,000 employees, the Department runs programs that 
affect broad swaths of the American economy.
  The Department includes the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, which warns of dangerous weather, charts seas, and 
protects ocean and coastal resources. The Department includes the 
Patent and Trademark Office, which fosters technology and innovation, 
and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, headquartered 
in Gaithersburg, MD, which promotes innovation and industrial 
competitiveness. The Department includes the Census Bureau and Bureau 
of Economic Analysis, which provide economic data to help business and 
policymakers make intelligent decisions. The Department includes the 
International Trade Administration, which ensures that Americans have 
access to international markets and safeguards Americans from unfair 
competition. And the Department includes the Economic Development 
Administration to promote job growth in economically distressed 
communities.
  To run the Commerce Department, President Trump has nominated Wilbur 
Ross, Jr., a 79-year-old private-equity billionaire with extensive 
holdings and extensive potential conflicts of interest. I have real 
questions about whether Mr. Ross is out of touch with ordinary 
Americans. And I have real questions about whether Mr. Ross's personal 
interests will conflict with his job as Commerce Secretary, if he is 
confirmed.
  The Commerce Secretary enforces our trade laws, including against 
major trade competitors like China. Last year, Mr. Ross told Bloomberg 
TV that he had extensive holdings in China. Mr. Ross said, ``We have--
various portfolio

[[Page S1436]]

companies have almost 20 factories doing one thing or another over 
there.'' And the New York Times reported that Mr. Ross is vice chairman 
of the Bank of Cyprus, making him a de facto business partner with 
Viktor F. Vekselberg, one of Russia's most prominent businesspeople and 
a person with ties to the Kremlin. Several newspapers have reported 
that Mr. Ross plans to keep millions of dollars invested in offshore 
entities whose values could be affected by policies that he implements 
as Commerce Secretary. Mr. Ross reported plans to hold on to 
investments in an oil-tanker company and 10 other entities that invest 
in shipping and real estate financing, according to Federal financial-
disclosure and ethics filings cited in the reports.
  I have questions about Mr. Ross's ability to work for Americans. 
Starting in the 1990s, Mr. Ross ran an investment firm that specialized 
in distressed assets. The Securities and Exchange Commission said that 
Mr. Ross's firm had failed to disclose how it calculates its fees for 
some funds, which led to investors to pay roughly $10.4 million of 
management fees that they should not have in the decade leading up to 
2011.
  The Commerce Secretary is a part of the President's economic team; 
yet Mr. Ross appears all too willing to play fast and loose with fiscal 
showdowns. When, in April 2011, Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton asked Mr. 
Ross whether S&P's downgrade of America's credit rating is ``a step in 
the right direction,'' Mr. Ross said it was. Ross said: ``Well I think 
it's a step in the right direction in that it will put pressure on the 
Democrats in the Senate and on the President to go along with some of 
the Republican reviews about really cutting the budget deficit and 
ultimately cutting the total indebtedness of the United States. So in 
that limited sense I think it is a step in the right direction.''
  Mr. Ross was all too quick to dismiss the strain that a furlough put 
on Federal Government workers. In October 2013, CNBC's Betty Liu had 
this exchange with Mr. Ross:

       Ross: I think shutting down the government--so-called 
     shutting down the government, which it's not really shut 
     down--
       Liu: What do you mean?
       Ross: Well, many parts of it are still quite open. And it's 
     just at the fringe that it--that it really matters.
       Liu: Yeah, but tell that to the government workers though 
     who are furloughed, right?
       Ross: Yeah, but they're going to get their pay. They know 
     they'll get their back pay. So I don't see that that's a 
     permanent damage.

  Mr. Ross was all too quick to dismiss the pain of homeowners who lost 
their homes in the financial crisis. Bloomberg TV's Betty Liu had this 
exchange with Mr. Ross:

       Ross: I think you have to look far and wide to find a home 
     owner who's an actual victim. These are all theoretical 
     things. They're mostly technical problems that the banks did 
     wrong. To the best of my knowledge--
       Liu: I think it'd be really hard to find, to pinpoint down 
     to individuals, right?
       Ross: Well there's never been a case that I know of where 
     someone was dispossessed who didn't have a mortgage and 
     wasn't in default.
       Liu: What do you mean?
       Ross: Well all these claims that there was robo signing and 
     all these imperfections, that's true. Those were not what 
     should be. But the real question is was anyone actually 
     dispossessed wrongly.
       Liu: Of their property.
       Ross: Yeah, incorrectly. And I don't think you find a 
     single case.

  The Commerce Secretary oversees the NOAA and the National Weather 
Service. But in a conversation with Fox Business's Neil Cavuto, Mr. 
Ross was dismissive of the reality of climate change. Mr. Ross said: 
``Well, I think unless the weatherman can tell me if it will rain 
tomorrow why would I believe you can make a 100 year forecast. So, I'm 
skeptical about the underlying basis.''
  And so President Trump has nominated to be Commerce Secretary a 
person who has so much wealth and so many foreign interests that it 
appears that it will be difficult for him to work in the interests of 
middle-class Americans. His extensive foreign business interests call 
into question his ability to fight to enforce America's trade laws. Mr. 
Ross has expressed cavalier attitudes toward economic brinksmanship and 
shown little concern for the people laid off or who lose their homes as 
a result. And Mr. Ross has expressed an open skepticism toward the 
reality of climate change that calls into question his ability to run 
the agency that does research into global climate. For these reasons, I 
cannot support his nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.