[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 10, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1436]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, I voted to advance the 
nominations of Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to be the Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development and Judge Merrick Garland to be Attorney 
General.
  These aren't the nominees whom any Republican would have picked for 
these jobs, but the Nation needs Presidents to be able to stand up a 
team so long as their nominees are qualified and mainstream. I have 
voted to confirm people like Secretaries Austin, Blinken, Yellen, 
Vilsack, and Buttigieg. We certainly disagree on plenty of issues, but 
I spent 4 years watching many of our Democratic colleagues do 
everything possible to obstruct and delay President Trump's nominees 
right from the start.
  Now we hear of many of the same Democrats insisting that, as a matter 
of principle, a new President needs his team and any delay is an 
outrage. It is funny how some things change. My position has not.
  I am voting to confirm Judge Garland because of his long reputation 
as a straight shooter and a legal expert. His left-of-center 
perspective has been within the legal mainstream.

  For the country's sake, let's hope our incoming Attorney General 
applies that no-nonsense approach to the serious challenges facing the 
Department of Justice and our Nation. Let's hope that he controls the 
bureaucrats and leftist subordinates that the President proposes to 
place under him, rather than the other way around.
  When I spoke to Judge Garland, we discussed his commitment to the 
ongoing investigation of the events of January 6. Federal law 
enforcement needs to continue the work of identifying, arresting, and 
prosecuting those who broke the law in order to disrupt the 
constitutional business of Congress. He assured me that will remain a 
priority.
  At the same time, it is essential that DOJ treat political violence 
with equal seriousness no matter which political fringe it may come 
from. Last summer, riots, vandalism, and even a so-called ``autonomous 
zone'' consumed parts of American cities. In some instances, thugs 
directly attacked Federal property. But amazingly, some local leaders 
seemed more willing to tolerate the chaos than tolerate the angry 
tweets that leftwing activists might have sent if they had stepped in 
to actually do their jobs.
  We were fortunate to have Attorney General Barr, who took seriously 
the Federal Government's role to protect Federal property and enforce 
Federal law. Judge Garland must be prepared to do the same.
  Of course, the riots haven't been the only area where we have seen 
liberal governance give short shrift to the rule of law. The Obama 
administration was famous for its willingness to let ideology dictate 
the enforcement of Federal laws or the lack thereof.
  Take the DACA Program, for example. When the Obama administration 
realized their preferred immigration policies couldn't get through 
Congress the right way, they stretched prosecutorial discretion and law 
enforcement discretion to breathtaking unconstitutional extremes. When 
confirmed, Judge Garland must not back other constitutionally corrosive 
efforts to effectively repeal laws just by ignoring them.
  That brings me to the issue of immigration more broadly. Just a few 
weeks into the job, the Biden administration and Secretary Mayorkas are 
flailing and failing on our southern border. The number of 
unaccompanied migrant children in Border Patrol custody has tripled in 
just 2 weeks and now dwarfs anything seen during the last 4 years.
  Like I mentioned last week, this is not an isolated question of 
border policy alone. The backdrop behind this entire crisis is the 
giant push toward amnesty and insecurity that the administration 
advertised throughout the campaign and every time they step to the 
podium now. That is what has enticed people to flood in.
  Even now, administration staff keeps parroting strange lines like 
``Now is not the time to come.'' ``Now is not the time to come''? Well, 
when is the right time to break Federal law? Is there going to be a 
good time to break into the country illegally, and people need to just 
be patient and wait for their signal? What on Earth are they talking 
about?
  A lot of blame for this mess rests on Secretary Mayorkas himself. He 
spent the first weeks of his tenure downplaying and denying the crisis 
instead of solving it. But, again, the Biden administration's far-left 
approach to this issue is not limited to DHS or to the border. Interior 
enforcement is a key component.
  On Secretary Mayorkas' watch, we have seen what the Washington Post 
calls ``a sharp drop'' in arrests by Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement--a collapse of more than 60 percent from just the prior few 
months--a political choice, in effect, not to enforce the law.
  Judge Garland must ensure the Department of Justice takes its duty to 
uphold the law more seriously
  Mr. President, on a related matter, after we confirm Congresswoman 
Fudge and Judge Garland, the Senate will consider two nominees I will 
not be supporting. They both report straight to the frontlines of the 
new administration's leftwing war on American energy. They would work 
to unbalance the balancing act between conservation and the economic 
comeback we badly need.
  To head the Environmental Protection Agency, the President has 
nominated Michael Regan, a longtime regulator and activist. Mr. Regan 
has plenty of experience. The problem is what he is poised to do with 
it. He and the administration are plainly prepared to put that 
experience behind the same far-left policies that crushed jobs and 
prosperity in States like Kentucky throughout the Obama administration.
  The Clean Power Plan? Back on the table. The absurd waters of the 
United States rule? Back on the table.
  Kentuckians know that when bad policies like those are on the table, 
it means their jobs, their livelihoods, and their communities are on 
the menu.
  Congresswoman Haaland, the President's pick to lead the Department of 
the Interior, was literally an original cosponsor of the Green New 
Deal. She has vowed to ``keep fossil fuels in the ground'' and once 
pledged ``to vote against all new fossil fuel infrastructure.''
  Her record and her views ignore the fact that American energy 
independence fueled prosperity for the working class and middle class 
over the last 4 years. Yet in multiple of those years, our carbon 
emissions actually went down--went down. The supposed choice between a 
clean environment and domestic energy independence is a false choice. 
It only exists as a zero-sum tradeoff in the minds of Democrats.
  We have every reason to believe that voting for Mr. Regan and 
Representative Haaland would be voting to raise gas prices for families 
who are already struggling, voting to raise fuel and heating bills for 
seniors on a fixed income, voting to take the tough times we have been 
going through and making them even tougher.
  I will be voting for American families and against both of their 
nominations.

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