[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2504-S2505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Gordon Hartogensis

  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I come to the floor to oppose the 
nomination of Mr. Gordon Hartogensis to serve as Director of the 
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and, really, to express my 
continued frustration with the Republicans' efforts to weaponize the 
nomination process for partisan gain, including their unprecedented 
refusal to move Democratic nominees for important Agencies, like the 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor 
Relations Board, in order to tilt them in favor of corporations, and 
including their continued attacks on women's healthcare and 
reproductive rights by stacking our courts with far-right judges.
  The Director of the PBGC is responsible for protecting the retirement 
security of almost 40 million people. We owe it to workers and retirees 
to make absolutely sure a nominee for this position has the relevant 
pension-related experience and knowledge to handle that challenge. One 
needs to have the determination to fight for workers and retirees and 
to have the willingness to work with Members on both sides of the 
aisle.
  When it comes to Mr. Hartogensis, I am simply not convinced that this 
is the case. It is unclear to me why he was nominated to replace 
Director Reeder, who is doing a commendable job, well before Director 
Reeder's term was completed. What makes this even worse is that the 
Senate HELP Committee didn't have a hearing at which members could 
question Mr. Hartogensis.
  I have asked the Trump administration why it decided to replace Mr. 
Reeder. No response. My Democratic colleagues on the committee asked 
the chairman for a hearing with Mr. Hartogensis. No hearing. We should 
be giving Mr. Hartogensis' nomination serious scrutiny, including 
having a hearing with the Senate HELP Committee, especially considering 
the complex challenges that the PBGC Director must help the Agency 
navigate amid our country's multiemployer pension crisis. Millions of 
workers and retirees across the country are at risk of seeing the 
pensions they were promised--that they earned and planned their 
financial futures around--thrown into jeopardy through absolutely no 
fault of their own.
  I am hopeful we can focus on this issue more going forward, and I 
look forward to taking bipartisan steps to address this crisis, but I 
am disappointed that our committee, which

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should be most focused on this critical issue, was not even able to 
have a hearing with Mr. Hartogensis in order to dive into this crisis 
more deeply. So, given my doubts about his credentials for this 
position and my frustration with this nomination process, I will be 
voting against this nomination.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Hartogensis is just one example of a broader 
effort by the Republicans to play political games with the nomination 
process in ways that, ultimately, harm workers and families nationwide.