[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 14, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S128-S129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CABINET NOMINATIONS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today, the Senate began holding hearings 
for the President-elect's nominees to serve in his Cabinet.
  This morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony 
from Pete Hegseth to serve as Secretary of Defense. Few nominees will 
face the kind of troubling questions that Mr. Hegseth faced going into 
today's hearing. He is, by outward appearance, woefully unfit for a job 
like Secretary of Defense. Unfortunately for Mr. Hegseth, his testimony 
thus far has failed to address the disturbing questions that plague his 
nomination. It appears Mr. Hegseth's strategy is to follow the five d's 
of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge.
  Mr. Hegseth failed to explain, for one, why someone with his lack of 
qualifications should be entrusted to lead our Armed Forces. Why should 
America entrust our military to a television personality who has never 
led any large organization? It is a huge organization, DOD. He hasn't 
come close to having any of that kind of administrative experience. We 
didn't hear any good answer to that question.
  Mr. Hegseth also failed to answer for his deeply flawed history of 
financial and organizational mismanagement. Why should he be the one 
entrusted to manage the Pentagon's budget? Again, no good answer.
  When asked about his comments as recently as 2 months ago, when he 
claimed that ``we should not have women in combat roles,'' he had no 
good answers.
  Finally, Mr. Hegseth failed to assure us he has the temperament for 
the job. His history of excessive drinking is troubling for someone 
seeking to lead our military, and his reflexive defiance against the 
allegations regarding sexual assault undermines his credibility.
  If Mr. Hegseth had nothing to hide about his past, then it shouldn't 
be a problem for the chairman of the Armed Services Committee to allow 
all committee members to review all FBI background documents, but 
today, Chairman Wicker rejected this reasonable request by Ranking 
Member Reed to let committee members review Mr. Hegseth's past. Again, 
if there is nothing to hide about Mr. Hegseth, why is the chairman 
hell-bent on keeping all relevant information out of the hands of his 
colleagues? To dismiss the allegations against Mr. Hegseth but then 
reject full transparency is odd at best, dangerous at worst. It reeks 
of something hiding in the dark.
  Being Secretary of Defense demands discipline, character, and 
restraint. Mr. Hegseth's history shows he is deficient in all these 
qualities, and so far, his hearing has not changed that.
  Mr. President, now on the noms tomorrow, Mr. Hegseth is not the only 
nominee testifying this week who must answer for a disturbing record. 
The number of people with disturbing records who have been nominated--
some of them are good nominees, but the number with disturbing records 
and histories--I don't think I can remember a time in history when we 
have had that many.
  Tomorrow, we will hear from a large collection of nominees, but let's 
focus on two: Russell Vought to serve as Director of OMB and Chris 
Wright to serve as Secretary of Energy.
  Let me begin with Russell Vought, a key figure in the first Trump 
administration and one of the chief architects--one of the chief 
architects--of Project 2025. This man is not just a bystander who 
supported it; he helped put it together.
  No administration on Earth can claim to be pro-worker and then 
nominate someone like Russell Vought to oversee the Federal 
Government's budget. Again, you can't be pro-worker and be for Russell 
Vought. He has spent years--years--pushing for trillions in cuts to 
America's social safety net--something that would cause immediate and 
severe harm to tens of millions of American citizens.
  We all know Mr. Vought's history very well. We know his awful and 
radical record from the first Trump administration. Even after leaving 
government, Mr. Vought was the go-to authority for the most radical 
elements of the House GOP, advising them on budgets that punished 
America's families, seniors, kids, law enforcement, and others with 
draconian--draconian--budget cuts. His budget cuts weren't just 
snipping at the edges; they cut to the deep.
  Tomorrow, when Vought testifies before the committee, Americans will 
be reintroduced to his outlandishly extreme agenda. If Project 2025 
caused your stomach to turn during the election, Mr. Vought would be a 
nightmare scenario. If you are among America's working class or from 
low-income families or from middle-class families working hard to make 
ends meet, Mr. Vought would be disastrous. If you rely on programs like 
Medicare or nutrition assistance, Mr. Vought would put those services 
in danger. On the other hand, if you are among the wealthiest of 
Americans in this country, Mr. Vought is a wave of good news. He is a 
staunch advocate of tax cuts for the ultrarich and deregulation for 
America's mega corporations, even if that means adding trillions to the 
deficit.
  As we will all see tomorrow for ourselves, confirming Mr. Vought 
would be a disaster for America's working- and middle-class families.
  Finally, I would like to say something about President Trump's 
nominee to serve as Secretary of Energy, Mr. Chris Wright. There is a 
lot--a heck of a lot--in Mr. Wright's background that should trouble 
Americans who care about affordable energy and creating good-paying, 
clean jobs.
  Mr. Wright is one of America's wealthiest fossil fuel executives and 
has a history of sounding like a climate change skeptic. He once said, 
``There is no climate crisis'' and ``We have seen no increase in the 
frequency . . . of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, and floods.'' What 
on Earth is this man talking about? Is he such an ideologue that he 
doesn't see the truth of the world around him?

  Mr. Wright, look over at California right now and say that we haven't 
had increases in these kinds of problems.
  Tomorrow, Mr. Wright must answer for his background and his comments. 
It is like putting a fox in the henhouse. If you believe in clean 
energy, you couldn't have a worse nominee.
  If confirmed, will Mr. Wright fight to lower costs for American 
consumers or will he fight to help the bottom line of polluters and oil 
companies? Will Mr. Wright push policies that build on the progress we 
made in the Inflation Reduction Act that has created hundreds of 
thousands, if not millions, of good-paying, clean jobs or will he kill 
those

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jobs because he is such an ideological extremist? If confirmed, will 
Mr. Wright advance our country into a prosperous, affordable clean 
energy future or will he take us backward and do the bidding of Big 
Oil? He must answer these questions and more tomorrow.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Barrasso and 
Durbin be permitted to complete their remarks prior to the scheduled 
recess.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Scott of Florida). Without objection, it 
is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.

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