[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 193 (Tuesday, December 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S7121]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                 Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 763

  Mr. President, in the spirit of trying to reach a compromise, as he 
proposes, I would just say this: Why don't we agree to take a vote--
just a vote--on having a select committee to look into what happened at 
Abbey Gate and get those answers and make them public--not a commission 
that will take years and years to report, Vietnam-style, when everybody 
who made the decisions are safely out of power and collecting their 
pensions, but a select committee that will report and make it public to 
the American people and get real accountability--because who has been 
fired over what happened at Abbey Gate? Nobody. Who has been held 
accountable? Nobody. Who has given answers? Nobody.
  Here is what I propose: I ask that the Senator modify his request so 
that following confirmation of the Rumbaugh nomination, the Senate 
proceed to legislative session; that the Committee on Rules and 
Administration be discharged from further consideration; that the 
Senate now proceed to S. Res. 763; further, that the resolution be 
agreed to and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid 
upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object and just 
very quickly, look, we are at an impasse here. The problem is that the 
Senator from Missouri is asking for something that he knows I can't 
agree to, and he is blocking the Comptroller of the U.S. Navy because 
he is mad about something else. I mean, it is very clear what he is mad 
about, and he has come in with his set speech about what he is mad 
about.
  The fundamental point here is that this is not the way to be a Member 
of the U.S. Senate. I remember--I guess it was a couple of years ago--
he came down and said: I ask unanimous consent that we pass my bill on 
section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
  I said: If you want to get a hearing, go try to get a hearing. 
Introduce a bill. Get a Democratic cosponsor. Make the case. Work it 
through the committee process.
  He has failed on that, and he has failed on this issue. He doesn't 
have other people with him, so he is pitching a fit. And the bummer 
about this is that it is not me who suffers; it is not one party or the 
other who suffers; it is the taxpayer. In this instance, it is the 
Department of the Navy that will lack a Comptroller because Josh Hawley 
is not getting his way.

  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). The objection is heard.
  Is there objection to the original request?
  Mr. HAWLEY. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Rhode Island.