[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
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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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