[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7849-S7851]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 2644

  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to immediate consideration of Calendar No. 393, S. 2644. I 
further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed 
to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, 
and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. McCONNELL. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I rise for the third time in the past 2 
months to defend the integrity of our political process by defending 
the ongoing investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
  The continuity of this investigation is critical to upholding public 
trust in our institutions of government due both to the substance of 
the investigation, the extent to which a foreign government was able to 
interfere in our political process, and the principle that no person--
no person, no matter how high the rank--is above the law.
  The investigation has produced results already, including the 
indictment of more than 12 Russian nationals for interference in the 
2016 elections. It has also led to much knowledge about what was going 
on during the period of 2016 and beyond with regard to individuals in 
the United States. We need to protect the independence of the special 
counsel and allow this crucial investigation, and any like it in the 
future, to run their course.
  This particular bill, S. 2644, Special Counsel Independence and 
Integrity Act, was approved by a bipartisan vote of 2 to 1 in the 
Judiciary Committee--14 to 7. We don't have many votes like that, the 
Senator from New Jersey will attest, in the Judiciary Committee. It has 
awaited a floor vote ever since. That is 9 months--9 months without a 
vote on this bipartisan bill that came out of the Judiciary Committee.
  I just asked a moment ago for unanimous consent to pass this 
legislation. It was objected to for the third time. I know some of my 
Republican colleagues have some sincere objections to this bill. Some 
of them believe a President must be able to fire anyone within the 
executive branch, at any time, since the President is the head of it. I 
understand the constitutional arguments. I know some of my colleagues 
hold them sincerely. I would respond that, if this bill becomes law, 
the President still has a key role in overseeing the process. There is 
accountability to him. The Constitution requires that there must be.
  Under this act, the Attorney General would still oversee the 
investigation and still be able to remove the special counsel for good 
cause. So the special counsel would not be fully insulated

[[Page S7850]]

from Presidential control. The Attorney General who oversees the 
special counsel still answers to the President. This legislation simply 
adds one layer of protection to the special counsel and makes his 
removal renewable, to make sure it is for sufficient cause, and it 
maintains a significant degree of Presidential control while protecting 
the special counsel investigations from being terminated by a President 
who might feel that he or she is under increasing heat.
  This bipartisan request today is timely and necessary. Just last 
month, after the midterm elections--for those of my colleagues who said 
throughout the year nobody is being fired, don't worry, nothing to see 
here--the day after the midterm elections, the President forced his 
Attorney General to resign after numerous public comments from the 
President that the AG should not have recused himself from the 
investigation even though he was a key player in the 2016 campaign.
  It is clear we need to put these protections in place and send this 
signal to the President. Nobody is above the law. The truth must be 
told, whatever it is.
  I thank my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, particularly 
Senator Coons and Senator Booker, for pushing this legislation and for 
insisting that it be considered on the Senate floor and for being here 
today again.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I am proud to once again join the Senators 
from Arizona and New Jersey on the floor to ask for a vote on the 
Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act.
  We have come three times now to ask for a vote--just a vote--on this 
bipartisan legislation to protect the special counsel and support the 
rule of law, a bill which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 
vote of 14 to 7, including with the support of Chairman Grassley, to be 
considered on the floor.
  Each time we have come here, there has been an objection from a 
Republican colleague. Each time, we have heard a reason or an excuse--
something like: This legislation just isn't needed. The President is 
not imminently going to fire the special counsel. To those who believe 
this bill is still unnecessary, I could give a thorough survey of the 
landscape of recent days, but let me simply summarize.
  There have been a whole series of filings and actions and 
developments in the Mueller investigation that have made clear that the 
President or his National Security Advisor or his personal attorney 
lied to the FBI or lied to the American people, misrepresented the 
scope and depth of the President's business contacts in Russia during 
the campaign or misrepresented to the FBI ongoing contacts with 
Russians. This is an effective and ongoing Federal investigation that 
must be allowed to reach its conclusion.
  Meanwhile, the President continues to spread misinformation and 
undermine the investigation into Russian attacks on our election. He 
recently suggested, with no evidence, that the special counsel and his 
team are bullying witnesses into lying about collusion, tweeting, the 
``Angry Mueller Gang of Dems is viciously telling witnesses to lie 
about facts & they will get relief.''
  I know many of us have begun to shrug our shoulders at the 
President's tweets, ignoring the ways in which his messages publicly 
undermine the rule of law or discredit and attack Federal prosecutors. 
I know some Members of this body have proved willing to dismiss each 
new piece of information the special counsel uncovers as if it is no 
big deal.
  Folks, this is not politics as usual. This is not something we should 
be sweeping under the rug. This is about the integrity of our 
democracy, our national security, and the President of the United 
States.

  It is critical that this body demonstrate our ability to come 
together in a mature and responsible bipartisan way to do something 
about it--not to sit by and watch a potential constitutional crisis 
barreling toward us and refuse to step up and act.
  Our job as Members of the Senate, sworn to uphold the Constitution, 
is to take reasonable, responsible, preventive action to avoid this 
sort of crisis that we can see coming. I am so grateful to my 
colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats--Senators Graham, Tillis, 
Booker, Grassley, Feinstein, and Flake--who have worked to craft this 
bill, to get it a hearing, to get it a vote, and to get it to the 
floor. Yet I am so frustrated with those who continue to block the last 
step, a vote on the floor.
  Just last night, we saw the broadest possible coalition of Senators--
from Senator Booker and Senator Lee to Senator Durbin, Senator Graham, 
and Senator Grassley--come to this floor and lead a successful final 
vote on criminal justice reform. If we can do that, overcoming decades 
of divisive politics on race and criminal justice, why can't we do 
this? This cannot wait. The moment to act is now. The American people 
deserve an explanation as to why we can't act on this most important 
point.
  Mr. President, before I yield the floor to my colleague of New 
Jersey, I want to conclude with a few words about my colleague and my 
friend Jeff Flake. When we look back at the history of this time, with 
the hindsight of history, it is my hope and it is my belief that 
Senator Flake will be recognized as someone who put country over party 
at a moment when it mattered. He follows a long line of Republicans 
whose mettle has been tested by the turmoil of their times--names I was 
raised on, such as Wendell Willkie, the Republican's nominee for 
President, who agreed to support President Roosevelt's controversial 
plan to send aid to Britain at a turning point in World War II, even 
though it was the height of a Presidential campaign. Without his 
support, the plan would have failed. FDR called him a godsend to our 
country.
  Margaret Chase Smith, of Maine, stood up to Joe McCarthy in 1950, a 
decade later. When she issued her ``Declaration of Conscience,'' she 
was just a freshman.
  Last, Barry Goldwater, also from Arizona, along with Republican 
leaders went to the White House in August of 1974 to make it clear to 
the President that he had lost their support and needed to resign.
  I am a proud Democrat, but I know that no party has a monopoly on 
courage or conscience. Our system only works when Members of both 
parties take risks for the good of us all. I have been deeply blessed 
to serve alongside and to work with Senator Flake. It is my hope that 
his example will inspire others in the Congress ahead to come together 
and to meet the demands of our time--protecting the rule of law, 
protecting the investigation of the special counsel. Taking up and 
passing this law is exactly one of those demands on which he has stood 
up and for which I am grateful for his leadership.
  With that, I yield to my colleague from New Jersey.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I want to give a lot of gratitude to my 
colleague, Senator Coons of Delaware. He is not only with us today on 
this call for a vote on a bill that was voted out of this Judiciary 
Committee in a bipartisan manner, but he is also a cosponsor of this 
legislation and somebody I have been proud to work with.
  I want to thank my colleague Jeff Flake for putting himself so far 
out there in pushing for this legislation. It is a consistent pattern 
with Jeff Flake. If you know him, you might know that he and I might 
disagree on a lot of policy, but he is one of the people I have looked 
up to in the U.S. Senate as someone who understands the role of 
Congress, the article I branch of government--that the powers of 
Congress articulated by the Constitution should be seen as sacrosanct, 
and that the erosion of these powers or the surrendering of these 
powers to the executive undermines the very ideals of our Constitution 
that our government should be one of checks and balances on power.
  I have seen him step forward and lead in the manner he is showing 
today. I have seen him step forward when it came to war powers and 
talking about the authorization of the use of military force and speak 
forcefully in a bipartisan manner with another of my colleagues, Tim 
Kaine, in saying: Hey, we have to have a system of checks and balances 
or the very foundations of this Republic begin to be undermined.

[[Page S7851]]

  If you know his character, you know he is on the Senate floor because 
of his deep belief in this Nation, not just today but for the tomorrows 
to come, and that we must maintain healthy checks and balances on 
Executive power and within our system of government.
  I am grateful for him to come in his final hours as a U.S. Senator 
still pushing this idea that there should be checks and balances, 
pushing this idea that there is a bipartisan space to try to preserve 
the ideals of this Republic, pushing this idea that no one--not a U.S. 
Senator, not a Congressperson, not even a President--is above the laws 
of this land because in the United States of America, we believe in the 
rule of law.
  More than this, we talk about the Framers, but every generation of 
people who are in these seats in many ways are stewards of this 
Republic. What I respect about my colleague from Arizona is that he 
takes that seriously. Something from past Members in history who have 
understood that is that you need to not only make decisions for today 
but you need to plan for tomorrow. It is an axiom that I know all of my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle believe: It is better to be 
prepared for a crisis and not have one than have a crisis and not be 
prepared.
  I am one to believe that we are coming perilously close to the 
precipice of our Nation having a constitutional crisis. There is an 
investigation going on that is not a political attack. It is not a 
witch hunt--whatever may be seen. We already have seen this 
investigation through a consensus of our intelligence community that is 
investigating an attack on our Nation. It is something that people from 
both parties have spoken about--the importance of having an independent 
investigation. It is something that an appointee of the President, Jeff 
Sessions, has said we need to make sure the investigation is 
independent and beyond reproach.
  That investigation has already yielded many indictments. It has 
yielded guilty pleas, and that investigation should be able to 
continue. There are some people who say: Hey, there is no threat to 
that investigation, but I am a big believer that if someone shows you 
who they are or tells you who they are, believe them.
  We have a President right now who is attacking this investigation--
the very legitimacy of this investigation--and he is acting like 
someone who believes this investigation shouldn't be going on at all. I 
believe that it may not happen, and we may not end up with a 
constitutional crisis, but if one comes, we should be prepared.
  How are we to be prepared? Not by some partisan radical idea, but by 
a very sobered measured step that is embodied in the legislation that 
we are calling for right now--to have a modest check and balance on a 
President's power to end an investigation and dismiss the special 
counsel. That is what this is all about. It is a modest step of 
judicial review that could prevent not just a crisis that might happen 
next month or next year but 20 years from now, 30 years from now, 50 
years from now. It is in line with what this body has done in the past 
of providing a check and balance on Executive power.
  We have called yet again, for the third time, for a vote, and a third 
time we have not been granted a vote on the Senate floor or granted 
unanimous consent.
  I am grateful to be standing with my colleagues for the third time. 
My hope is that in the fashion we have seen on this floor of recent, 
that we can work together to ensure we have a check and balance on 
Presidential power, to ensure the ideal of this Nation of equal justice 
for all, and to ensure that we can have a country where no one is above 
the law.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, to conclude, I thank my colleagues for 
their kind words. I thank them for taking their jobs seriously and that 
they would continue to do this.
  I say to our President: This is not a witch hunt. Russia attempted to 
interfere in our elections, and they will continue to make that 
attempt.
  We are seeking truth here, and that is what the special counsel is 
doing, and he needs to be protected. We need to be better prepared for 
future elections. That is what this is about.
  As the Senator from New Jersey just said, this is based on the 
principle that no one--no one, however high and mighty, whatever 
position they hold--is above the law.
  With that, I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.

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