[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   NOMINATION OF JENNIFER ANN ABRUZZO

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later today, the Senate will vote on 
President Biden's nominee to serve as general counsel for the National 
Labor Relations Board.
  There actually shouldn't be a vacancy in this position. When 
President Biden took office, the person serving as the NLRB's top 
lawyer was still in the middle of a term to which the Senate had 
confirmed him. He was doing his job, serving the country, and had no 
intention to skip out of his responsibilities early.
  But less than 30 minutes after pledging to heal and unify the country 
in his inaugural address, President Biden broke precedent and 
threatened to fire Peter Robb unless he resigned prematurely that very 
day.
  At the very first instant that the new President's statements about 
norms, institutions, and governance ran up against the demands of the 
far left--well, the decision didn't take very long. Where Senate 
confirmation and fixed terms were supposed to create independence, this 
administration just wanted partisan loyalty.
  Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. It has actually 
been a pattern. This small world of independent agencies has offered us 
actually a case study in the gap between the administration's unifying 
rhetoric on the one hand and its divisive actions on the other.
  Back in March, the Biden administration took aim at another Senate-
confirmed official, the general counsel for the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission. This time, a full 2 years before her term was 
set to expire. Sharon Gustafson had been engaged in important work, 
particularly in defense of religious freedom in the workplace. But the 
President didn't want to wait for our system to play out properly. He 
broke with norms and he fired her.
  Just this month, we witnessed the firing of Andrew Saul, the head of 
the Social Security Administration. Listen to this. He was just 2 years 
into a 
6-year term. Mr. Saul had kept a critical agency functioning through a 
historically challenging year. He was not some partisan hack. We are 
talking about someone the Senate confirmed with 77 votes--77 votes--a 
bipartisan supermajority for Mr. Saul.
  But powerful liberal interests got the President's ear. They wanted 
their own hand-picked insider. Norms and precedents had to go out the 
window. Now, the American people deserve to trust in the independence 
of crucial watchdog agencies like these, but with these firings, this 
administration has instead decided to explore frontiers in partisan 
hardball.
  We just spent years listening to the left and the media express 
outrage over personnel decisions and dismissals, many of which amounted 
to a heck of a lot less than the three I just mentioned

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