[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 191 (Monday, December 2, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6784-S6786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                    Nomination of Dan R. Brouillette

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, here is what the Senate and the American 
people need to know before the next vote coming up on the nominee to be 
the Secretary of Energy.
  First, Mr. Rick Perry--who until yesterday was the Energy Secretary--
has refused to comply with the subpoena to testify about his 
involvement in the Trump-Ukraine scheme.
  Second, Acting Secretary Dan Brouillette--nominated to replace Mr. 
Perry--has failed to provide substantive answers to key questions about 
Mr. Perry's dealings with the Ukrainian state-owned energy company 
Naftogaz.
  Third, since I have been raising questions on this matter, Naftogaz 
executives have reportedly been coming forward to cooperate in a 
Federal investigation into the Ukraine scheme.
  Mr. Perry has virtually skipped town, leaving his job after insisting 
for months that he was determined to stay while the Ukraine scheme is 
front and center in the House impeachment inquiry.
  Now, with the vote on Mr. Perry's replacement just minutes away, the 
Senate is truly in the dark, lacking answers to important questions. 
Those questions include issues pertaining to Mr. Perry's role in a 
campaign to change the leadership of Naftogaz; questions about what Mr. 
Perry, his donors, and certain crooked associates of Rudy Giuliani's 
stood to gain from those changes; questions about Mr. Perry's role in 
the Ukraine scheme, which Trump administration officials have admitted 
was about withholding critical military aid in a face-to-face meeting 
until the Ukrainian President agreed to do for Donald Trump what he 
described as a political favor.
  These are serious issues closely tied to ongoing investigations. This 
goes way, way beyond the well-documented waste we often see in the 
Trump Cabinet--private jets, soundproof booths, $30,000 desks; this is 
about the administration using its full might to push a foreign leader 
into helping Donald Trump's reelection campaign. The Senate ought to 
know about Rick Perry's involvement, especially since he was described 
by Mr. Holmes and others as one of the ``three amigos'' who were right 
in the center of all this.
  What exactly is the rush on confirming his replacement? This isn't 
the first week of a new administration. Nothing is going to happen to 
the powerplants or nuclear facilities if the Senate takes the time to 
get answers to these central questions. Dan Brouillette is already the 
Acting Secretary. No American interest suffers if the Senate insists on 
getting answers that go right to the heart of the Senate's oversight 
responsibilities.
  I briefly want to recall what this is all about.
  The ``three amigos'' basically seized control of our country's ties 
with Ukraine under the direction of the President and his personal 
lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. Secretary Perry led the American delegation that 
attended President Zelensky's inauguration in May after the Vice 
President was told to stay home. The Vice President and President 
Zelensky held private meetings.
  It has been reported that Perry pushed President Zelensky to fire 
members of the board of Naftogaz and replace them with Mr. Perry's own 
political donors. At a subsequent meeting with the Ukraine Government 
and energy sector officials, Perry reportedly said that the entire 
board ought to be replaced.
  The Associated Press reported that at that meeting--and I am going to 
quote here--the Associated Press said that one of those people who 
attended that meeting where Perry was in attendance ``said he was 
floored by the American requests because the person had always viewed 
the U.S. government `as having a higher ethical standard.'''
  The changes Mr. Perry was seeking lined up with changes sought by a 
pair of now-indicted men, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were 
apparently friends of Mr. Giuliani's. They, too, wanted different 
leadership at Naftogaz. Here is what the Associated Press had to say 
about that:

       As Rudy Giuliani was pushing Ukraine officials last spring 
     to investigate Donald Trump's main political rivals, a group 
     of individuals with ties to the president and his personal 
     lawyer were also active in the former Soviet republic. Their 
     aims were profit, not politics. This circle of businessmen 
     and Republican donors touted connections to Mr. Giuliani and 
     Trump while trying to install new management at the top of 
     Ukraine's massive state-owned gas company. Their plan was to 
     then steer lucrative contracts to companies controlled by 
     Trump allies, according to two people with knowledge of their 
     plans.

  Federal prosecutors are investigating the role of Mr. Giuliani. At 
least one Naftogaz official is reportedly cooperating in the 
investigation.
  Some of Mr. Perry's political donors did score a lucrative energy 
deal in Ukraine after Perry got involved there. Perry admits he was in 
contact with Giuliani about Ukraine.
  It was also revealed in impeachment testimony that Perry was 
seemingly made aware in July of the Trump scheme and Ukraine.
  Unlike Fiona Hill, unlike David Holmes, unlike Lieutenant Colonel 
Vindman, Rick Perry has refused to testify and share what he knows with 
the public.
  For nearly 3 weeks, I have been trying to get answers. At Mr. 
Brouillette's nomination hearing on November 14, I asked him really 
basic questions. I had plenty of time--to a great extent, courtesy of 
my good friend the ranking minority member, who is always fair. I had 
plenty of time. I asked basic questions. It came down to this:
  Who did Secretary Perry meet with regarding Ukraine and Naftogaz? He 
was the head of a powerful department. He was one of the self-styled 
``three amigos.'' Who else was in the loop? What did they talk about?
  Acting Secretary Brouillette only acknowledged--he wasn't willing to 
say

[[Page S6785]]

anything. This was a full court stonewall. He wasn't willing to say 
anything other than that there were meetings--no other information and 
nothing substantive on the questions I asked. So I just kept asking 
him.
  Who took part in the meetings with Secretary Perry on Naftogaz? When 
and where did they take place? What materials were produced? I don't 
think Secretary Perry just went to those meetings all by his lonesome 
with maybe a bag lunch or something like that. My guess is that he had 
staff from the Department of Energy with materials produced by the 
Department of Energy.
  Who outside of the Department did Secretary Perry speak with 
regarding changes in Naftogaz, and what was the substance of those 
communications? It is not like Secretary Perry would have paid his own 
way and freelanced a ``three amigos''-Ukraine policy in secret. This is 
the head of the Energy Department. It looks like he was right in the 
center of the Trump corruption scheme in Ukraine.

  I am just going to close in this way. I don't understand the rush. 
Mr. Brouillette is at the Department of Energy now. He is the acting 
chief. Western civilization is not going to end if the Senate insists 
on getting some answers to the questions that I have presented this 
afternoon. We are still going to have our powerplants and nuclear 
facilities running, and all of the national security activities that go 
on at the Department of Energy will still go forward if the Senate 
takes the time to require that there be substantive answers to the 
questions that I have asked of this nominee.
  I believe it is malpractice for the U.S. Senate to rush this debate 
before getting answers from this administration, Mr. Brouillette, 
Secretary Perry, and those who, I believe, could answer these questions 
if they didn't want to, in effect, say to the U.S. Senate: We are just 
going to pass here. You might want to hold us accountable, but we have 
a chance to just skip out, and we are going to take it.
  This is not the way the Senate is supposed to work. That is why I 
cannot support moving forward with this nominee, and I will be voting 
no this afternoon.
  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. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, within a few minutes, we will be voting 
on the President's nomination for the new U.S. Secretary of Energy, Dan 
Brouillette. I am here to offer my support for Mr. Brouillette, and I 
hope my colleagues will vote for him. I am confident that, with his 
leadership, we will continue to build on the progress we have made 
under Secretary Rick Perry.
  Secretary Perry has been a very effective Secretary of Energy during 
his time here. He has used his executive and political skills, which 
are considerable in his having been the Governor of Texas longer than 
anybody and in his having been involved in politics for a while, to 
take charge of this very important Department and lead it in a very 
strong way.
  For example, one of the best kept secrets in Washington, DC, is that 
over the last 5 years, we have had a record level of funding for 
supercomputing, which has allowed the United States to be the first in 
the world in competition with China and Japan and other countries. We 
have had significant increases in funding for National Laboratories--a 
42-percent increase over 5 years. That is record funding. Secretary 
Perry has also helped to save taxpayers' dollars by having made sure 
the huge construction projects we have in some of the Department of 
Energy's facilities have been brought under control. So Mr. 
Brouillette, should he be confirmed by the Senate tonight, will be 
following a very distinguished Secretary in Rick Perry.
  I look forward to working with Mr. Brouillette. I and Senator 
Feinstein, of California, are the chairman and ranking member of the 
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. We have worked very well 
together over the last, nearly, 10 years in supporting the Department 
both under the Obama administration and under the Trump administration. 
We have worked in a bipartisan way and have had strong support from our 
colleagues, which has been made possible by excellent Secretaries of 
Energy. I believe Mr. Brouillette will be yet another one of them.
  He knows the Department well, as he has been the Deputy Secretary 
since 2017. In my conversations with laboratory directors and others 
across the country, they feel like he knows them well. I know that this 
is true in Tennessee. For example, at the Oak Ridge National 
Laboratory, which is our largest science and energy laboratory, Mr. 
Brouillette has been crucial in the building of the world's fastest 
supercomputer, Frontier, which is housed in Oak Ridge. As Senator 
Feinstein and I have insisted, he has also been crucial in making sure 
that we stay on time and on budget in the building of a huge uranium 
processing facility at Oak Ridge, which has been the largest Federal 
construction project in our State since World War II, when the 
Manhattan Project was created there.
  Mr. Brouillette has visited the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He 
understands the important work being done there, both at the laboratory 
and at the Y-12 uranium facility. He understands the importance of the 
environmental cleanup being done there and at Hanford in Washington 
State and other places.
  In short, I think we are very fortunate to have someone of his 
caliber and his experience nominated to head one of our most important 
Departments--the Department of Energy.
  I look forward as chairman of his appropriations subcommittee, should 
he be confirmed, to working with him during this appropriations 
process, which we hope is about complete, and during the next one, 
which will be coming up soon.
  I am here simply to say that I support Mr. Brouillette. I am glad the 
President nominated him. I hope he gets a big vote in a few minutes. I 
look forward to working with him.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about our nominee 
and the vote for Secretary of Energy.
  Mr. Brouillette came before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee 2 weeks ago. I found him to be up to this enormous task. He 
is a good man, and he has the credentials. He came out of our committee 
16 to 4, and that is pretty impressive in today's toxic world that we 
live in, sorry to say.
  He has a long history with energy issues and with the Department of 
Energy, so he is no stranger to this agency or to the workings of this 
agency. He has served as the staff director of the House Energy and 
Commerce Committee, so he understands the proceedings of this body and 
of the House. At the Department of Energy, he served as an Assistant 
Secretary of Energy during the Bush administration and, of course, as 
the Deputy Secretary for the past 2 years under Secretary Perry. He 
knows the Department; he knows Congress; and he knows the energy issues 
facing our Nation.
  He has also demonstrated his managerial skills. He has been vice 
president of Ford Motor Company, and he has been a senior vice 
president of USAA, which I think we all know is the large insurance and 
financial services giant that serves the members of our military and 
their families.
  This Senate has confirmed him twice before, and we have gone indepth 
in looking into him, and he has been forthcoming. He has not held 
anything back. I asked him every question I possibly could. I know some 
of my dear colleagues on my side of the aisle have some concerns on 
some questions they want answered. I did get into those with him. He 
assured me that his answers were accurate and correct, and I found them 
to be very substantial.
  I basically come before you to say that we have a gentleman who I 
think is well qualified. He is ready for the job; he is up to the job; 
and he understands the job. That is what we should be looking at.
  So if we could put politics aside--truly put politics aside--and look 
at the qualifications of a person who is willing to serve and his 
family, who is

[[Page S6786]]

behind him 100 percent, wanting him to give that service--he and his 
wife are both former military people.
  I found him to be quite charming, quite delightful to work with and 
talk to but, more than that, most professional in his approach and how 
he has handled himself and in the way we have worked with him in our 
committee. Being the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee, I have worked with him, and we have worked with him 
throughout the last 2 years. He has been very forthcoming and good to 
work with.
  I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to please 
consider voting for this gentleman because I think he is really the 
right person at the right time for this job.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to start the 
vote at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the 
Brouillette nomination?
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
Graham), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Portman), the Senator from South 
Dakota (Mr. Rounds), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and 
the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Colorado (Mr. Bennet), 
the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), the Senator from New York 
(Mrs. Gillibrand), the Senator from California (Ms. Harris), the 
Senator from Alabama (Mr. Jones), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. 
Klobuchar), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from 
Massachusetts (Ms. Warren), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. 
Whitehouse) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 70, nays 15, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 367 Ex.]

                                YEAS--70

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hawley
     Heinrich
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Udall
     Warner
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--15

     Baldwin
     Blumenthal
     Brown
     Cortez Masto
     Hirono
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Reed
     Rosen
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Van Hollen
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--15

     Bennet
     Blunt
     Booker
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Harris
     Jones
     Klobuchar
     Portman
     Rounds
     Sanders
     Scott (SC)
     Toomey
     Warren
     Whitehouse
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________