[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 94 (Thursday, June 7, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3272-S3273]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Pardon Power

  In other news, Madam President, we have learned that the President is 
very keen on his pardon power. The President went so far as to tweet 
earlier this week that he believes he has the absolute right--his 
words--to pardon himself.
  Let me remind President Trump of a very simple fact: President Trump, 
you do not have the right to pardon yourself. No one--no one--in 
America is above the law, not even the President--especially the 
President. If the President did have the right to pardon himself, he 
could engage in blatant corruption and self-dealing without 
consequence. The President could violate the emoluments clause, for 
example, and simply exonerate himself for taking bribes from foreign 
interests. Surely that is not what our Framers intended. It would turn 
the Presidency into a farce and render American democracy greatly 
defunct.
  When the President says and tweets things like this, we have to be 
very clear about how wrong he is. We cannot allow the morality of this 
government, the shining example the Founding Fathers put together, to 
just recede. President Trump is doing that on almost a daily basis, and 
we need not just Democrats, we need Republicans and Independents to 
stand up when he says things like that.
  I was glad to hear that a number of my Republican colleagues said he 
doesn't have the power to pardon himself. I was proud of Senator 
Grassley, who always speaks his mind--sometimes I like it, sometimes I 
don't, but he always speaks his mind--who talked about how wrong it was 
for the President to say he could pardon himself.
  The idea that the President could pardon anyone, anytime, himself 
included, is antithetical to the very idea of a democracy.
  President Trump, you are not King by another name.
  I hope the President will focus instead on the Nation's business in 
the months ahead.
  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. INHOFE. Madam Present, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Will the Senator yield for a UC?
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. Chairman, I will yield to you under almost every 
circumstance.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that at the 
conclusion of the remarks by the Senator from New Jersey, I be 
recognized as in morning business for as much time as I shall consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I rise today to speak in opposition to 
the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to serve as the Assistant Secretary 
for Civil Rights at the Department of Education. One of the most 
critical functions of the Department of Education is the role in 
enforcing Federal civil rights and upholding the protection of 
students' civil rights in schools.
  The Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Education is a 
particularly important instrument in enforcing civil rights in schools, 
protecting those precious rights of our children, and ensuring that 
schools provide students with access to equal educational opportunities 
and a nondiscriminatory environment in which to learn. It is an idea we 
have in our country that it is fundamental that we have a level playing 
field and abundant opportunity for all kids, no matter what their 
background is.
  The continued need for this office is clear. In fact, during the 
Obama administration, the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of 
Education handled 76,000 complaints over 8 years and issued dozens of 
policy guidance documents to help schools better protect and preserve 
civil rights of students.
  In the last year alone, or year and a half, we have seen what is 
clearly an abdication of this leadership in the Trump administration 
and what that has meant for the protection of civil rights for our 
country's children and for our country's students. We have seen an 
Office for Civil Rights that has rolled back protections for LGBTQ 
students, an office that has rolled back protections for students with 
disabilities, and an office that is set on gutting the very mission of 
the office itself, which is to protect all of our students from 
discrimination and empower them with equal opportunities to succeed.
  The confirmation of Kenneth Marcus would be another blow to the civil 
rights of our students. Mr. Marcus is someone who, in his record and in 
his testimony to my colleagues on the Senate HELP Committee, has 
demonstrated that he possesses at best a disturbing apathy and at worst 
a wanton disregard for the importance, if not urgency, of protecting 
the rights of our kids in school.
  When Mr. Marcus was asked by Senator Murray to name an example of 
something--anything--that Donald Trump had said or done when it comes 
to discrimination or civil rights that he disagrees with, and Mr. 
Marcus could not name any area of disagreement. He couldn't find a 
single disagreement in the way that Donald Trump demeaned Americans 
with disabilities or how the President has spoken about Mexicans or 
even the way the President has issued policies that attack the rights 
of Muslims or the rights of LGBTQ Americans. There was no disagreement 
mentioned whatsoever.
  When he was asked during his confirmation hearing if as Assistant 
Secretary he would intervene in an instance where Black students in a 
school district were receiving lower quality teachers, fewer books, 
fewer AP classes, and fewer educational resources than White students, 
one would expect his answer to have been: Yes, I would intervene. Yes, 
I would stand up for equality. Instead, Mr. Marcus refused to say that 
he would step in in such a hypothetical circumstance.
  When Senator Murphy asked about disparities in school districts that 
were suspending or expelling five times as many Black students for the 
same set of behaviors compared to White students, instead of just 
saying the obvious thing--that this is wrong, that the same behavior 
necessitates the same disciplinary action--instead of saying something 
as simple as that, Mr. Marcus went on to say this:

       ``I believe that disparities of that size are grounds for 
     concern, but my experience says that one needs to approach 
     each compliant, or compliance review, with an open mind and a 
     sense of fairness to find out what the answers are. I will 
     tell you that I have seen what appeared to be inexcusable 
     disparities that were the result of paperwork errors, they 
     just got the numbers wrong.''

  I don't know how much of the data on this issue of disciplinary 
inequality Mr. Marcus has seen, but it is abundantly clear that for 
someone who wants to be in this position, they should understand the 
crisis we have with discipline in this country. The data has shown that 
even in preschool--from the age of 4 years old--Black preschool kids 
are 3.6 times more likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than 
White preschool kids. Again, that is also for the same infraction.

  This is not about getting the numbers wrong. This is about being 
aware of a problem we have in this country that fuels the school-to-
prison pipeline. It is a problem that is so severe that I fought in a 
bipartisan way to get an amendment about school expulsions in the Every 
Student Succeeds Act. This is a problem that is so severe that in 2014 
the Department of Education issued guidance clarifying that schools 
must administer discipline without discrimination on the basis of race, 
color, or national origin. The guidance provided important information 
and support for schools to create a safer, more inclusive environment. 
We know this problem is not going away, because just last month a new 
report from the Government Accountability Office concluded that Black 
students, boys, and

[[Page S3273]]

students with disabilities were still significantly overrepresented in 
disciplinary action.
  What we need is a Department of Education that is going to stand up 
for kids on problems that we know exist. I was stunned that this is a 
candidate who doesn't even acknowledge the urgency in protecting LGBTQ 
kids. And at a time of such crisis, Secretary Betsy DeVos continues to 
fail to protect the rights of all of our students, just this week, she 
called discrimination against LGBTQ students in schools ``an issue for 
Congress and the courts to settle,'' abdicating any responsibility.
  That is unacceptable, and I don't understand. We have children who 
are literally under attack. We face a crisis in this country when it 
comes to LGBTQ youth. This is not an argument over facts. The facts are 
clear: LGBT youths face a stunning level of prejudice and 
discrimination inside and outside of schools, starting at a young age. 
We know that LGBT youths are two times more likely than their 
heterosexual peers to be physically assaulted in school. LGBT youths 
are four times as likely to attempt suicide.
  According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 34 percent of gay and 
lesbian youth students were bullied on school property, and 13 percent 
report not going to school because of fear for their safety. This kind 
of harassment has no place in our classrooms or schools or anywhere in 
the United States. It is far too common, from discriminating 
disciplinary practice to physical violence against our kids, and we 
have work to do in this country to keep all children safe, to treat all 
children equally, to give every kid a fair shot in schools to make it 
and thrive. Yet we are trying to elevate someone to one of the most 
significant positions in our land to protect children who has a 
disregard and an apathy toward the compelling and continuing problems 
in our schools.
  When I think about the role of the Federal Government in protecting 
children, I think about a picture that, as soon as I walk out of my 
office, the picture is there, and it is that picture from Norman 
Rockwell of Ruby Bridges trying to walk to school, at the age of 6, to 
become the first Black child to attend a White elementary school in the 
South. The photo of her--and the famous painting--is jarring when you 
see it. It is a reminder to me every day when I leave my office about 
the roles and responsibilities we have in this body. The hate that was 
being spewed on her--Ruby Bridges--was plainly evident.
  I am telling you, if you visit schools right now and talk to some of 
our children who are being bullied and intimidated, they can speak to 
that kind of hate as well. You can still feel the pain and hatred 
echoing from our past, and you can see it. You can see it echoing in 
our present. She was determined, and, most importantly, she was not 
alone. At the age of 6, walking to school, Ruby Bridges walked not 
alone but, as Norman Rockwell's picture captures, she walked with 
Federal Marshals, and they stood with her. She was not alone. She had 
government folks who said: Your rights are my rights. Your future is my 
future. We pledge an oath to be a nation of liberty and nation not for 
some but for all--that ``injustice anywhere,'' as King said, ``is a 
threat to justice everywhere.''
  The Federal Government alone is not enough to educate our kids. It is 
about local communities that keep them safe. It is about those soccer 
coaches. It is about the drama teacher. It is about the English 
teacher. It is about the love and the kindness and the nurturing 
environment that is the common standard in all of our schools in 
America in every State. We have seen from history that there is a role 
for us to play in keeping folks safe. There are aberrations in our 
country where hatred still thrives, where discrimination still exists, 
where there is a role for us to play, and we can't surrender that role.
  We can't retreat from our vigilance in protecting every child in 
America. That is why the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of 
Education are so critical and must be led by someone who understands 
our history and understands the urgent work that still needs to be 
done. We need a person in this role who is committed to every single 
child no matter who they are and a person who sees within that child 
their truth, their divinity, their limitless potential, their promise, 
and how we as a nation need them to succeed.
  We have a long way to go. There is work still to do. Children in this 
country who are hurting now need champions in positions of high office. 
That is why I oppose the nomination of Mr. Marcus. He is not the 
person, by his own testimony, who sees our children, who will protect 
all of our children, who understands their crises, and hears their 
cries. I will be voting against his nomination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator from Oklahoma.