[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 24012]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          CONFIRMATION PROCESS

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I understand Senator Dole is coming to the 
floor, and I just want to, until she gets here, say a few words about 
what happened at the Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday 
when the confirmation of Governor Leavitt of Utah was being considered.
  I have the honor of serving on four committees in the Senate, 
including the Judiciary Committee, which, as we all know, has proven to 
be a particularly contentious committee, with the unprecedented 
filibuster of some of President Bush's most highly qualified nominees.
  But yesterday, for the first time, we saw some of the politics of the 
Judiciary Committee, the obstructionism there, pervading the 
Environment and Public Works Committee, for the first time, when it 
came to considering and voting on the nomination of Governor Leavitt of 
Utah to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency. Rather than have a debate, rather than have an honest debate, 
and then an up-or-down vote on this important nomination, what we saw 
was simply a boycott. Members of the committee on the other side of the 
aisle simply decided not to show up, making it impossible for us to 
achieve a quorum and impossible for us to vote on the confirmation of 
Governor Leavitt.
  For the life of me, I cannot understand how those who claim to be 
pro-environment would simply obstruct the confirmation of a highly 
qualified nominee and leave the Environmental Protection Agency 
headless. Denying leadership to that large agency concerned with the 
protection of our environment and enforcement of our environmental laws 
and claiming to be pro-environment strikes me as inconsistent.
  So I fear that as the primary season approaches for the Presidential 
race in 2004, what we are seeing again is the unfortunate intrusion of 
Presidential election politics into the work of the Senate.
  Unfortunately, what that means is the people's work is not being 
done; the Environmental Protection Agency is denied the confirmation of 
a highly qualified nominee and is left leaderless. Certainly that 
cannot be pro-environment under any stretch of the imagination.
  Some said there were 400 questions in writing that had been submitted 
to Governor Leavitt, which, in fact, he did his best to answer. But at 
least one Senator said: Well, I don't really care about the answers to 
the questions. I am going to vote to confirm him, but I want him to go 
through the exercise of answering those questions anyway so we can get 
him on record.
  Well, the problem is that the nominee is somebody who has not yet 
served in that position. He is hobbled, to some extent, to be able to 
answer some of the questions that have been proposed. So he has to say: 
Well, if confirmed as Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
Agency, I will do everything within my power to investigate this issue, 
and to get to the bottom of it, and to respond to your concern, 
Senator.
  But, otherwise, he is left without the opportunity for an up-or-down 
vote, and the EPA is left without a head--hardly a place where we need 
to be. We would not be in that condition if it were not for 
Presidential election politics pervading yet another committee's work 
when it is concerned with the protection of our environment.
  I know in the Judiciary Committee this morning we have another 
nominee of the President who we are going to take back up, Judge 
Charles Pickering. It remains to be seen whether Judge Pickering's name 
will be added to the growing list of those who are being denied an up-
or-down vote in this body because a minority of the Senate refuses to 
allow that up-or-down vote--an unprecedented act of obstruction and 
something which has not occurred before the obstruction of Miguel 
Estrada's nomination, that of Priscilla Owen, that of Bill Pryor. I 
hope that list is not further lengthened by adding the name of Charles 
Pickering.
  Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence 
of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the time of the 
majority has expired; is that right?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the majority has 
expired.

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