[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4635-4637]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
the Senate proceed to executive session to consider Calendar Nos. 471 
and 473; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, the President be immediately 
notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative 
session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The nominations considered and confirmed en bloc are as follows:


                          department of state

       Deborah K. Jones, of New Mexico, a Career Member of the 
     Senior Foreign Service, Class of Counselor, to be Ambassador 
     Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of 
     America to the State of Kuwait.

[[Page 4636]]




                         department of justice

       Kevin J. O'Connor, of Connecticut, to be Associate Attorney 
     General.

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, we have finally completed our consideration 
of the nomination of Kevin O'Connor to be Associate Attorney General, 
the number three position at the Department of Justice. This nomination 
was cleared by the Democrats and set to be confirmed before our Easter 
Recess but was blocked by a last-minute, anonymous Republican hold. 
Also blocked at that time and still held is the nomination of Gregory 
Katsas to be the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil 
Division.
  I was particularly disappointed with that unexpected development in 
March. We had worked hard to expedite these nominations, holding a 
hearing on the first day of this session of Congress. After a nearly 
month-long delay, when Republican Members of the Judiciary Committee 
effectively boycotted our business meetings in February, we were able 
to report these nominations to the Senate in early March. They were set 
for confirmation before the Easter recess, until the last-minute 
Republican objection stalled them. They joined the President's 
nomination of Michael Sullivan to be the Director of the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as among those stymied by 
Republican objections.
  I thank Senator Whitehouse for chairing the hearing on the O'Connor 
nomination. We continued our work in connection with high-ranking 
Department of Justice nominees the week before recess when Senator 
Kennedy chaired our hearing on the nomination of Grace Chung Becker to 
be Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division. 
The Civil Rights Division is entrusted with protecting precious rights 
of Americans, including our fundamental right to vote. That hearing was 
the seventh the Committee has held since last September on executive 
nominations, as we continue to work to restock and restore the 
leadership of the Department of Justice in the wake of the scandals of 
the Gonzales era.
  A little more than a year ago, the Judiciary Committee began its 
oversight efforts for the 110th Congress. Over the next 9 months, our 
efforts revealed a Department of Justice gone awry. The leadership 
crisis came more and more into view as Senator Specter and I led a 
bipartisan group of concerned Senators to consider the United States 
Attorney firing scandal, a confrontation over the legality of the 
administration's warrantless wiretapping program, the untoward 
political influence of the White House at the Department of Justice, 
and the secret legal memos excusing all manner of excess.
  This crisis of leadership has taken a heavy toll on the tradition of 
independence that has long guided the Justice Department and provided 
it with safe harbor from political interference. It shook the 
confidence of the American people. Through bipartisan efforts among 
those from both sides of the aisle who care about Federal law 
enforcement and the Department of Justice, we joined together to press 
for accountability. That resulted in a change in leadership at the 
Department, with the resignations of the Attorney General and many 
high-ranking Department officials.
  The partisan accusations of ``slow walking'' nominations that the 
President engaged in at the White House recently, and repeated even 
today by Republican Senators, are belied by the facts. They are about 
as accurate as when President Bush ascribed Attorney General Gonzales' 
resignation to supposed ``unfair treatment'' and having ``his good name 
. . . dragged through the mud for political reasons.'' The U.S. 
Attorney firing scandal was of the administration's own making. It 
decimated morale at the Department of Justice. A good way to help 
restore the Justice Department would be for this administration to 
acknowledge its wrongdoing.
  What those who say we are ``slow-walking'' nominations do not say is 
that as a result of the mass resignations at the Justice Department in 
the wake of the scandals of the Gonzales era, the Committee has held 
seven hearings on high-ranking nominations to restore the leadership of 
the Department of Justice between September of last year and this 
month, including confirmation hearings for the new Attorney General, 
the new Deputy Attorney General, the new Associate Attorney General, 
and so many others. Of course those months also include the December 
and January holiday period and break between sessions.
  What is being ignored by the President and Senate Republicans as they 
play to a vocal segment of their Republican base is that we have worked 
hard to make progress and restore the leadership of the Department of 
Justice. In the last 6 months, we have confirmed a new Attorney 
General, a new Deputy Attorney General, held hearings for several other 
high-ranking Justice Department positions, and voted those nominations 
out of the Judiciary Committee. Today we continue that progress with 
the confirmation of the Associate Attorney General.
  It is vital that we ensure that we have a functioning, independent 
Justice Department. In January, the Judiciary Committee held our first 
oversight hearing of the new session and the first with new Attorney 
General Michael Mukasey. We held another oversight hearing last month 
with FBI Director Mueller and tomorrow we are holding an oversight 
hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff to explore that 
Department's handling of issues within the Judiciary Committee's 
jurisdiction related to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the 
so-called REAL ID Act, naturalization backlogs, the resettlement of 
Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers and the shameful, continuing 
aftermath from Katrina. These are more steps forward in our efforts to 
restore checks and balances to our Government and begin to repair the 
damage this administration inflicted on our Constitution and 
fundamental American values.
  We continue to press for accountability even as we learn startling 
new revelations about the extent to which some will go to avoid 
accountability, undermine oversight, and stonewall the American 
people's right to the truth. We find shifting answers on issues 
including the admission that the CIA used waterboarding on detainees in 
reliance on the advice of the Department of Justice; the destruction of 
White House e-mails required by law to be preserved; and the CIA's 
destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations not shared with 
the 9/11 Commission, Congress or the courts. The only constant is the 
demand for immunity and unaccountability among those in the 
administration. This White House continues to stonewall the legitimate 
needs for information articulated by the Judiciary Committee and others 
in the Congress, and contemptuously refuse to appear when summoned by 
congressional subpoena.
  In spite of the administration's lack of cooperation, the Senate is 
moving forward with the confirmation of executive nominations. With the 
confirmation today, we will have confirmed 27 executive nominations, 
including the confirmations of nine U.S. Attorneys, five U.S. Marshals, 
and the top three positions at the Justice Department so far this 
Congress.
  Of course, we could have made even more progress had the White House 
sent us timely nominations to fill the remaining executive branch 
vacancies with nominees who will restore the independence of federal 
law enforcement. There are now 19 districts across the country with 
acting or interim U.S. Attorneys instead of Senate-confirmed, 
presidentially-appointed U.S. Attorneys. For more than a year I have 
been talking publicly about the need to name U.S. Attorneys to fill 
these vacancies to no avail.
  We have seen what happens when the rule of law plays second fiddle to 
a President's agenda and the partisan desires of political operatives. 
It is a disaster for the American people. Both the President and the 
Nation are best served by a Justice Department that provides sound 
advice and takes responsible action, without regard to political 
considerations--not one that develops legalistic loopholes to serve the 
ends of a particular administration.
  I congratulate the nominee and his family on his confirmation today.

[[Page 4637]]



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