[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 214 (Thursday, December 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, we are getting, perhaps, close to a 
new Presidency. So there is a lot of talk about how the Senate might 
handle new Cabinet people. Democrats are always lecturing Republican 
Senators about approving future Biden Cabinet nominees, even if we 
don't agree with them.
  Now, that is pretty darn rich. In other words, they are saying 
something like this: Don't follow our example from the past four years.
  Or another way to put that is: Don't treat Biden nominees to the 
Cabinet like we treated Trump nominees to the Cabinet.
  So they seem to want two sets of rules for Republican and Democratic 
Cabinet nominees, just like they want with judicial nominees.
  President Obama had six Cabinet Secretaries approved by the Senate on 
his Inauguration Day, without even needing a rollcall vote, so that 
President Obama could hit the ground running.
  President Trump had none by voice vote, and only two were approved by 
rollcall votes before the President took over. Trump Cabinet and sub-
Cabinet nominees, even ones who had been easily confirmed in previous 
Republican administrations, faced obstruction and partisan ``nay'' 
votes. Many Democrat Senators who aspired to be President voted against 
virtually every single Trump nominee, no matter how well qualified.
  My position has always been that a President should have the ability 
to choose his own Cabinet people whom he gets along with and whom he 
gets along with on policy, provided, of course, that they are qualified 
and will follow the law.
  That is the way it should be. It is how I have approached nominees to 
date. But can Senate Republicans be sure that if we employ that 
standard, Democrats will play fair with the next Republican President?
  I don't want retaliation for its own sake, but the threat of holding 
Democratic Senators to their own standards has been our only means of 
deterrence of obstruction. I want to hear from Democrats why we should 
not now adopt their standards and vote down nominees based on politics.
  I yield the floor.
  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. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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