[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1811-S1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CLOTURE MOTION
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
Cloture Motion
We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the
provisions of rule XXII of the
[[Page S1812]]
Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a
close debate on the nomination of Daniel Coats, of Indiana,
to be Director of National Intelligence.
Mitch McConnell, Michael B. Enzi, David Perdue, Bob
Corker, John Hoeven, Lamar Alexander, Bill Cassidy,
John Barrasso, Dan Sullivan, Tim Scott, James Lankford,
Tom Cotton, Mike Rounds, James M. Inhofe, Chuck
Grassley, Roy Blunt, 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 Daniel Coats, of Indiana, to be Director of National
Intelligence, 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 Georgia (Mr. Isakson).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 88, nays 11, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 88 Ex.]
YEAS--88
Alexander
Barrasso
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Brown
Burr
Cantwell
Capito
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Cassidy
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Cortez Masto
Cotton
Crapo
Cruz
Daines
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Ernst
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gardner
Graham
Grassley
Hassan
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Johnson
Kaine
Kennedy
King
Klobuchar
Lankford
Leahy
Lee
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Moran
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Perdue
Peters
Portman
Reed
Risch
Roberts
Rounds
Rubio
Sasse
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Strange
Sullivan
Tester
Thune
Tillis
Toomey
Udall
Van Hollen
Warner
Whitehouse
Wicker
Young
NAYS--11
Baldwin
Booker
Duckworth
Gillibrand
Harris
Markey
Merkley
Paul
Sanders
Warren
Wyden
NOT VOTING--1
Isakson
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 88, the nays are
11.
The motion is agreed to.
The Senator from Virginia.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, first of all, I thank my friend the
Senator from Texas for giving me the courtesy of letting me get in my
comments about the nomination of former Senator Dan Coats to serve as
the fifth Director of National Intelligence, a position recommended by
the 9/11 Commission and established by the Intelligence Reform and
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004.
Dan Coats is a friend of mine and many in this body. He represented
Indiana in both the U.S. House and for separate terms in the U.S.
Senate. He was also U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2001 to 2005. As
mentioned, for 6 years I served with the nominee on the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence. I have always found Dan to be fairminded and
know him to be an advocate for strong oversight of the intelligence
community. He believes in the need for intelligence that is timely,
relevant, and free of political interference.
During my private meeting with him, as well as during his
confirmation hearing, Senator Coats committed to find and follow the
truth, regardless of where it leads, agreeing that his primary job will
be ``to speak truth to power,'' to the President, to policy and
military leaders, and to Members of Congress. I know these are traits
he will continue to employ if confirmed as the next Director of
National Intelligence.
During James Clapper's most recent tenure as the DNI, in 6 years he
put in place some fundamental changes in how the Intelligence community
operates. He reoriented the Office of the DNI to focus on intelligence
integration with an emphasis on mission. He often was willing to roll
up his sleeves and take on the hard challenges of trying to get the
intel community to operate on the same IT backbone systems. If
confirmed, I have encouraged Senator Coats to build upon former
Director Clapper's efforts, which are critical to ensuring that
policymakers, warfighters, law enforcement, and national security
officers receive intelligence products that are timely, relevant, and
objective.
Of course, if confirmed, Director Coats will take on the job as the
Nation's chief intelligence officer, leading the intelligence community
during a very difficult time because unfortunately this President,
along with his closest advisers, has repeatedly and unfairly disparaged
the professionalism and actions of the Nation's intelligence
professionals. These are men and women who maintain the highest
standards of professionalism and integrity. They anonymously sacrifice
for the country, often in the face of grave personal danger.
As DNI, Senator Coats is committed to defending the values and
integrity of the men and women of the intelligence community, even when
the White House may not like to hear it.
Another challenge Senator Coats will face on his first day on the job
is to effectively support the Senate Intelligence Committee's ongoing
investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential
election. Last week, I went to CIA headquarters in Langley, along with
a number of other Members of the committee, to review the beginnings of
the raw intelligence that led the community to conclude that Russia
massively interfered in our last Presidential election. Both in public
and in private, Senator Coats has promised he will support the
committee's investigation to the fullest. We will hold him to that
commitment.
On this topic, I want to reiterate on the Senate floor what I have
already said numerous times. This investigation is not about being a
Democrat or Republican nor about relitigating the 2016 election. The
investigation is about upholding the core values and sanctity of
democracy that all Americans hold dear. It is also about holding Russia
accountable for their improper interference in our elections and arming
our allies--one of which has an election today--with information about
the means employed by Russia in our elections so they can use that
information to protect the integrity of their own electoral process.
We will work to ensure that this critical investigation is done
right, done in a bipartisan manner, free of any political interference,
and as the chairman and I have both reiterated, that it follows the
facts wherever they may lead.
I have every reason to believe Senator Coats will be forthcoming in
supporting this investigation. If at any point it becomes clear to me
that the Senate Intelligence Committee is unable to keep up these
commitments, I am prepared to support another process.
Finally, let me acknowledge two other things.
During Senator Coats' confirmation hearing, he was asked about his
role on the National Security Council, including the Principals
Committee. He assured us that he will be attending these meetings and
participating in them despite the confusion created by an Executive
order that appeared to disinvite the DNI from these meetings. If he is
not included in these meetings, I will expect to know about it and the
reason why.
Senator Coats has also committed to me personally and to the
committee that he will not support the return of waterboarding and
other so-called enhanced interrogation practices, nor will he support
reestablishing secret detention sites into the activities of the
intelligence community. He reassured the committee that he will follow
the law as it now stands and that he will not advocate for changes to
the law or recommend a reinterpretation of the law based on any
personal beliefs. The law is clear: No interrogation techniques outside
the Army Field Manual are allowed.
Finally, Senator Coats has also reassured me and all of the members
of the committee that if confirmed, he will always present to the
President, to his Cabinet advisers, and to those of us in Congress the
unvarnished facts as represented by the best judgments of the
intelligence community whether or not that analysis is in agreement
with the views of the President, with ours in Congress, or with anyone
else's who might receive them.
[[Page S1813]]
For these reasons, I support the movement. I was glad to see 88
Members of this body support Dan's movement forward. I believe he will
be a great fifth Director of National Intelligence.
I thank my friend the Senator from Texas for giving me time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I thank my friend, the Senator from
Virginia, who is the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, for his remarks.
I, too, support the nomination of Dan Coats to serve as the next
Director of National Intelligence and succeed James Clapper, who has
been in the intelligence business for 50-plus years. He has big shoes
to fill, but I have every confidence Dan Coats can do that.
One of the things I hope he looks at is that post-9/11, when the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence was created, we
basically created another layer in the intelligence community. As the
Presiding Officer and other Members know, the DNI--the Office of the
Director of National Intelligence--has grown by leaps and bounds. I
just hope he takes a good, hard look at the layers we have created,
perhaps at the duplicative functions that do not necessarily make our
intelligence any better but that do create more problems in managing
what is a very important office to our national security and certainly
to the intelligence community.