[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 66 (Tuesday, April 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2373]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Mike Pompeo

  Mr. President, before I close, I would like to take a couple of 
minutes to discuss the nomination of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of 
State.
  I don't need to tell anyone how incredibly qualified he is for this 
job: first in his class at West Point; 5 years of Active-Duty service 
in the Army, achieving the rank of captain; editor of the Harvard Law 
Review; elected to Congress four times by Kansas's Fourth Congressional 
District, serving on the House Intelligence Committee; and, finally, 
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Clearly, he has proved his 
dedication as a public servant and is an outstanding candidate for 
Secretary of State.
  His nomination should be sailing through the Senate, and normally it 
would be. Prior to this Presidency, we were on a pretty bipartisan 
track for Secretary of State confirmations. Members of both parties 
believed it was important that a President have a national security 
team to support him, and they voted accordingly. John Kerry was 
confirmed as Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 3. Hillary Clinton 
was confirmed as Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 2. Condoleezza 
Rice was confirmed as Secretary of State by a vote of 85 to 13, and 
Colin Powell was confirmed as Secretary of State unanimously.
  This doesn't mean that Republicans agreed with all of John Kerry's or 
Hillary Clinton's policies or that the Democrats agreed with all of 
Condoleezza Rice's or Colin Powell's policies. But Members of both 
parties recognized that these nominees were qualified, and they 
believed that partisanship shouldn't play a role when it came to making 
sure the President had a national security team to support him.
  Fast forward to today. Gone is the bipartisanship of the past. Today, 
Democrats are obstructing an entirely and eminently qualified candidate 
for Secretary of State for the sole reason that they don't like this 
President. They didn't get their way in the last election, and, in 
response, they have spent the last year or more obstructing one 
qualified nominee after another.
  I get that the Democrats don't like President Trump, but when you are 
a Member of the U.S. Senate, you have to think beyond your own 
preferences and accept the fact that in a free country with free 
elections, sometimes you don't get your way.
  Obstructing nominees has consequences. At the very least, delaying a 
President's ability to staff his administration diminishes his ability 
to serve the American people effectively, but that is not all. 
Obstructing certain nominees, such as a nominee for Secretary of State, 
can have consequences for our national security and diplomacy. An 
incomplete national security team is a detriment to the safety and 
security of our country.
  Right now, the United States and our allies are currently facing a 
number of serious challenges from North Korea and an increasingly 
emboldened Iran to chemical attacks in Syria and the ever-present 
threat of terrorists. It is vital that the President have a fully 
equipped national security team to monitor and address these dangers. 
It is beyond irresponsible that Senate Democrats are compromising the 
President's ability to respond to threats simply because they prefer 
not to confirm anyone he has nominated.
  Democrats should immediately drop their obstruction of Mike Pompeo 
and confirm him as Secretary of State, and they should stop obstructing 
other qualified national security nominees, such as Andrea Thompson, a 
native of my home State of South Dakota, who has been nominated as 
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security 
Affairs.
  You would think Democrats would be content with their unprecedented 
obstruction of the President's nominees, but, unfortunately, there is 
another thing the Democrats are obstructing right now, and that is the 
Coast Guard reauthorization bill.
  Once again, it is clear that Democrats are obstructing not because 
they have serious objections to the bill but because obstruction has 
become their default response to legislation in the Republican-led 
Congress.
  Democrats claim that the Coast Guard reauthorization bill has not 
received sufficient input or debate, and that could not be further from 
the truth. A portion of the bill they are ostensibly concerned about is 
the Vessel Incidental Discharge Act, or VIDA. It has been introduced in 
the last five Congresses, and more than one of those times it was 
introduced by Democrats.
  The current version of the bill is the product of not just months but 
years of hearings, meetings, and negotiations. Despite the fact that 
this year's original version of VIDA had bipartisan support, we made a 
number of further concessions to address concerns that have been raised 
by Democratic Senators, but they just keep moving the goal posts. It 
has become pretty clear that Democrats' real objection is not to the 
bill itself but to working with Republicans or to seeing the President 
accomplish anything.
  I hardly need to say the Coast Guard reauthorization bill is an 
important bill. It authorizes the Coast Guard's funding, as well as pay 
and benefits for Coast Guard personnel, who play a vital role in 
maintaining national security and law and order in the waters around 
the United States.
  It would be nice if Democrats would consider dropping their partisan 
objections and working with Republicans to pass this essential piece of 
legislation and working with us to help get confirmed particularly 
critical national security nominees at a time when we face an array of 
threats across the entire planet.
  Nominees like the Secretary of State, particularly well-qualified 
ones, are not to be trifled with. It is not a time to play politics 
when you are dealing with America's vital national security interests.
  I hope that this Chamber, this body, will return to the tradition we 
have had in past administrations in which we have approved Secretaries 
of State, as I said earlier, by votes of 94 to 3, 94 to 2, 85 to 13, 
and unanimously. Those were the last four Secretaries of State. This 
has turned into a partisan game, if you will, at a time when our 
country really can't afford for us to play partisan games.
  I hope when this vote comes up later this week, we will have a big 
bipartisan vote, consistent with our history and consistent with the 
fact that when you have a qualified nominee for an important position 
like this, this Senate comes together, takes very seriously its 
constitutional role in the confirmation process, and has that vote--
hopefully, a big bipartisan vote in support of Mike Pompeo.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.