[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 86 (Thursday, May 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2897-S2899]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it was about 5 or 6 weeks ago that I 
accepted an invitation and an opportunity to visit Caracas, Venezuela. 
I had never been to that country before and spent 4 days. It turns out 
that not many Members of Congress go to this country and very few are 
given permission if they ask, but for some reason, I was given 
permission and went down there to meet with the leaders of the 
government and to take stock of what was happening in Venezuela.
  Sadly, I have to report that Venezuela--that proud nation--is 
teetering on collapse. I met with President Maduro, members of his 
government, opposition leaders, civic and humanitarian leaders, medical 
experts, victims of the regime's political repression, and an American 
who is currently jailed on political charges in Caracas.
  What I found there and recounted on the floor a few weeks ago was a 
heartbreaking set of overlapping crises--humanitarian, economic, and 
political. While these three inexcusable crises of the government's 
making continue, the people of this poor nation are increasingly 
suffering and leaving in desperation. It is one of the most desperate 
situations I have ever seen in a country that is not in the midst of a 
war. In my discussion with President Maduro, I urged him to help get 
his country out of the international isolation that it currently faces 
and put an end to the human suffering by starting with a clean 
election.
  Last Sunday, there was an election. It was a farce. I asked him to 
release political opponents so they could run for office. I asked him 
to authorize parties to field candidates. I asked him to

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create enough time in the election cycle so there could be a real 
campaign. I told him, if he didn't and went through with his election 
campaign, it would not be a credible result. We know the Maduro regime 
was using food, among its starving people, to manipulate votes. The 
regime had, unfortunately, no credible election monitors before or 
during the vote, and, of course, it rushed the election to get the 
result it was looking for.
  I recently joined with Senator Menendez of New Jersey. We said, quite 
simply, that Maduro should have the courage to have an open election, a 
democratic process. As we arrived at the airport, we noticed the great 
hero of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Hugo Chavez won his first election in a 
democratic manner, and I urged President Maduro to now do the same.
  I was also direct in saying to him that he had to release the 
American, Josh Holt, who is being held in prison, in Caracas, on 
political charges. Why is he being held? It is that he traveled to 
Venezuela to be with and to marry the woman he loved and to bring her 
and her two daughters back to his home State of Utah? He crossed the 
Maduro regime, and in that process, he was arrested on charges that are 
outrageous. He has been held now for almost 2 years without having had 
a meaningful trial or a resolution of the dispute.
  As the events of the last few weeks have shown, the obvious path 
forward for Venezuela has been rejected by the Maduro regime. Instead, 
it went ahead with last Sunday's widely discredited election in which 
his regime jailed or disqualified any meaningful opponent. It was a 
farce. It will only result in the further isolation and suffering of 
the Venezuelan people. I know President Maduro is blaming Yankee 
imperialists for the problems his country is facing or the opposition 
to his leadership. He need only look to neighboring nations in Central 
and South America to see that they also reject what he has done 
politically.
  Despite stirring video pleas from the prison in which Josh Holt, the 
American, is being held, Maduro's regime wouldn't even meet with our 
top diplomat in Caracas. Todd Robinson is the Charge d'Affaires who 
represents the United States since we are not allowed to have an 
ambassador in that country. He went to the Foreign Ministry on behalf 
of Josh Holt when he heard about the prison riot and the danger to this 
American prisoner who is being held on political charges. Obviously, he 
got under President Maduro's skin, and he has now expelled him.
  The Trump administration has been unequivocal in claiming that the 
Venezuelan election was a sham and also in imposing new economic 
sanctions in order to put pressure on the leaders in the Venezuelan 
Government to change. As I told President Maduro and members of his 
government, both parties in America may have their squabbles and 
differences, but when it comes to Venezuela, we stand together. 
Republicans and Democrats agree that things need to change dramatically 
in Venezuela if it wants to enter the family of civilized nations 
around the world.
  President Maduro has responded not by reaching out to the opposition 
and not by showing any true reform but by rejecting every overture. He 
refuses to release Josh Holt and his Venezuelan wife and daughters to 
allow them to come to the United States. He still keeps Leopoldo Lopez, 
a political leader in Venezuela, under house arrest. I spoke to Mr. 
Lopez by phone and met personally with his wife. It is shameful what 
they are doing to him.
  By restoring the power of a legitimate national assembly, President 
Maduro would show he is willing to move toward the Constitution which 
guided his country, but he refuses. He refuses to start a meaningful 
dialogue with the Lima Group--other nations in the region--that want to 
work with him toward moving Venezuela to a better day. He refuses to 
work with neighbors and humanitarian groups that truly want to address 
the suffering in that country.
  It was not until the public health briefing I had in Venezuela and a 
personal visit to a local hospital that it really hit me and hit me 
hard how bad things are. This is a country--one of the few on Earth--
that is not at war but that is currently facing epidemics of measles, 
diphtheria, and malaria. When you go to Caracas city hospitals--not to 
remote, rural hospitals--and ask them what they need, they tell you 
vaccines, antibiotics, cancer drugs--the basics. They don't have them 
in that country.
  You can just see on the streets of Caracas that the people are 
starving. They are starving. They don't have enough food to eat in that 
country. The inflation is so out of control that people stand in line 
for an hour a day to get the maximum withdrawals on their credit cards, 
in hard currency, because the withdrawals are worth the 60 cents they 
need for round trip bus fare to their places of work. At 11 o'clock at 
night, in the darkness, you will see people standing by ATM machines to 
withdraw wads of currency worth 60 cents so they can board the buses 
the next morning.
  The expulsion of our Charge d'Affaires, Todd Robinson, was really 
disgraceful. He was accused of conspiring against the Venezuelan 
Government. What did he do? He stood up for the American prisoner, Josh 
Holt. That is all. Todd Robinson is one of the Nation's highly 
respected diplomats who carries the rank of Ambassador and has served 
with distinction in some of the most challenging countries in the 
world. I spoke with him on the phone yesterday. He is disappointed. He 
knows there is much work to be done in Venezuela to protect innocent 
people and to make sure the Americans have a strong presence in order 
to protect them as well, and now he is being expelled.
  During my visit to Caracas a few weeks ago, I watched him try to 
establish a dialogue with the Maduro regime. It was next to impossible. 
A dialogue requires someone on the other side who will listen and 
respond in good faith. That was not the case. When I spoke to him--our 
Charge d'Affaires, Mr. Robinson--he was packing up and helping the 
Embassy staff prepare for his departure. He will be back in the 
Washington area over the weekend. I thanked him for his service in 
Venezuela and for his team that continues to soldier on under some of 
the most difficult circumstances in the world.
  Until the Maduro regime stops dismantling its country's democracy and 
starts to address the true humanitarian crisis which exists in its 
country, I will continue to support U.S. and regional measures to put 
pressure on the Maduro regime to change. I know of no other way to do 
this that will not bring more suffering and death to the innocent 
people of Venezuela. This once great nation will not be great again 
until its leadership understands that the current approach--denying 
democracy, denying the electoral process, refusing to have an open 
dialogue with democratic nations around the world--will only sink them 
further into the abyss.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.


Law Enforcement's Legal Protection Against Retaliation for Cooperating 
                             with Congress

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, as I often have to come to the floor to 
clear things up, I am back once again.
  I have been seeing reports--reports that are wrong--that individuals 
within our Federal law enforcement agencies who want to talk to 
Congress about problems they have seen on the job have a fear that if 
they do that, they could be punished. The reports say these individuals 
then want to be subpoenaed by congressional committees rather than come 
forward voluntarily. There is a perception that without a subpoena, 
they have no legal protection against retaliation for their cooperating 
with Congress.
  That is nonsense, and that is a misrepresentation that has been 
fomented by the FBI's and the Department of Justice's leadership for 
many years under both Republican and Democratic administrations. I have 
worked hard to strengthen legal protections, especially for FBI 
employees. FBI employees have a right to cooperate with congressional 
inquiries just as they have a right to cooperate with the inspector 
general. Anyone who tells these FBI agents anything else is lying. FBI 
agents and all Federal law enforcement are protected if they want to 
provide information to the Congress. That is true whether it is by 
subpoena or not.

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  If that is news to law enforcement people, including the FBI, I would 
encourage you to research the law individually. It is found at title 5, 
U.S. Code, section 2303.
  As you will see in the law, nowhere in that language do its 
protections require a subpoena, nor do they require the approval of an 
agent's chain of command or congressional affairs staff approval.
  Moreover, Federal appropriations law also forbids the use of 
taxpayers' dollars to pay the salary of any individual who interferes 
with or attempts to interfere with a Federal employee's right to 
communicate directly with Congress.
  The Government Accountability Office recently found that an Obama 
Housing and Urban Development congressional affairs official did 
interfere that way in 2013, so paying that salary violated the 
restrictions Congress had placed on the money. Based on that ruling, 
Housing and Urban Development initiated collection efforts to recover a 
portion of the salary paid illegally, as a debt owed back to the United 
States from this executive branch staffer, as a result of interfering 
with somebody's right to talk to Congress.
  Congress has the power of the purse, and bureaucrats need to 
understand that funding for their salaries comes with strings attached. 
Federal employees cannot be prevented from talking directly to 
Congress--pretty plain--period.
  There can be no interference with any Federal employee talking 
directly to Congress. I should add that you shouldn't even try.
  If unelected bureaucrats have so much contempt for an employee who 
voluntarily informs the people's elected representatives of facts 
necessary to do our constitutional responsibility of oversight, then we 
still have a lot of work to do. That kind of thinking is dangerous. It 
leads to irresponsible government, and is totally contrary to law. If 
that perception is persisting throughout law enforcement, including the 
FBI or, indeed, throughout government generally, then the leaders of 
those agencies are not doing their job. They are failing in their 
responsibility as leaders, they are failing the workforce, and they are 
failing the American taxpayer.
  I don't want anyone out there to be confused. It is pretty simple. If 
you are a Federal employee and you want to disclose wrongdoing and 
waste to the Congress or you want to cooperate with a congressional 
inquiry, you are legally allowed to do so. You should not have to fear 
retaliation. No FBI agent or other government employee should be afraid 
to cooperate with Congress or with the inspector general.
  Any FBI agent who has information to provide, or questions about 
their rights to provide it, should not hesitate to reach out and ask. 
Contact the committee. Contact the inspector general. There are people 
there who can tell you more about what protections may apply to your 
specific situation.
  It seems to me that if you know something is wrong, you have a 
patriotic responsibility to expose it. Transparency brings 
accountability, and what we don't have enough of in the U.S. Government 
is accountability.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. 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. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, what is the pending order at the desk as 
it relates to the time of the vote?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The vote is to occur at 1:45 p.m.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, we are considering today the nomination 
of James ``Randy'' Evans to be Ambassador to Luxembourg. I opposed Mr. 
Evans' nomination in committee, and I will again oppose his 
confirmation on the floor.
  My concerns with Mr. Evans center around his tenure on the Georgia 
State Election Board from 2002 to 2010. In March of 2005, Georgia 
passed a controversial new law requiring voters to show a photo ID in 
order to cast a vote.
  Despite the fact that both Federal and State judges prohibited the 
law from going into effect, the Election Board made a decision in 2006 
to send a letter to 200,000 voters with the false impression that the 
law would be in effect for the upcoming election. Appropriately, this 
action caused an uproar, and multiple voices accused the Board of 
defying the injunction in a deliberate attempt to mislead voters and 
possibly suppress minority turnout. The board subsequently mailed out a 
clarification letter, but the damage had already been done.
  During his confirmation process, Mr. Evans unfortunately presented 
conflicting accounts of his involvement in this effort to suppress 
voter turnout. He first said he could not remember the details of how 
the letter was sent or who wrote it. However, other board members who 
served during that time period, as well as summaries of election board 
meeting minutes from 2006, clearly reflect that Mr. Evans and the board 
as a whole appeared to play a central role in drafting and distributing 
the letters.
  These conflicting accounts trouble me. The right to express one's 
vote at the ballot box is fundamental to our democracy. Throughout our 
Nation's history, various actors have sought to systematically deny 
different groups of people this core right.
  Those representing the United States abroad must embody and embrace 
our fundamental democratic values and ideals. I am not convinced that 
Mr. Evans will do that. One cannot be advocating for democracy and 
human rights and suppressing votes here at home. I do not think he has 
demonstrated the judgment I would expect from our Ambassadors, and for 
this reason I will urge my colleagues to reject sending Mr. Evans to 
Luxembourg as the U.S. Ambassador.
  Because my colleagues are here on the floor, although I have time 
reserved to speak on North Korea, I will yield, because I think they 
have an important action to take place.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.

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