[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S6491]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Madam President, on nominations, we are here at the beginning of 
another week in the Senate. As is the norm under Leader McConnell, we 
will not be debating legislation like the Dream Act in order to improve 
the lives of average Americans. Instead, we will vote on another slate 
of controversial Trump administration nominees.
  First up is the nomination of Chad Wolf to serve as an Under 
Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. Mr. Wolf has had 
leadership roles within the DHS through much of Trump's Presidency and 
has troubling ties to President Trump's disastrous family separation 
policy, the Muslim ban, and the national emergency declaration at the 
southern border. Despite testifying that he was not involved in the 
family separation policy, Mr. Wolf reportedly suggested the policy in a 
memo he sent to then-Attorney General Sessions. He is ashamed to admit 
it. He knows it was wrong, but he did it anyway. This man does not 
deserve to be an Under Secretary at DHS.
  The circumstances of Mr. Wolf's nomination are also very strange. 
Wolf is not only already serving as an Under Secretary in an acting 
capacity, but President Trump has named him as the incoming Secretary 
of DHS in an acting capacity. President Trump never bothered to 
nominate a replacement for departing DHS Secretary McAleenan, who left 
yesterday. Yet the Senate is being asked to confirm someone to a job he 
is not even going to perform. Indeed, if Mr. Wolf is confirmed, we may 
never vote on who will be the actual Secretary of DHS, which is a major 
Cabinet-level department.
  This is completely unacceptable. The administration is having trouble 
finding people to fill these jobs. They know the cruelty they will be 
asked to enforce, and they know that Donald Trump will treat them 
poorly. So he can't find anybody to take these positions. Hence, we 
have this awkward game of musical chairs. Rather than working with 
Congress to find a DHS Secretary whom we could support, the Trump 
administration is trying a legal end-around that subverts our 
constitutional duty to advise and consent.
  Regardless of your ideology or views on immigration, my fellow 
Senators should oppose Wolf's nomination on constitutional grounds.
  After the Senate considers Mr. Wolf, we will consider the nomination 
of Steven Menashi to serve on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
  I have rarely met a nominee as low as Mr. Menashi. He has a troubling 
record on race, women's equality, LGBTQ rights, and the rights of 
immigrants. His conduct before the Committee on the Judiciary was 
insulting, and recent reports describe how, during his tenure while 
working at the Department of Education, he played a leading role in 
designing an illegal effort to deny debt relief to thousands of 
students who had been swindled by for-profit colleges. That is right. 
The Senate is going to be asked to confirm someone, Mr. Menashi, to be 
a judge who designed an illegal scheme to deny debt relief so as to 
defraud students. The man has no principles. The man has no conscience. 
The man has no morals. He should not be on the bench.