[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24329]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1845
                CZARS NEED TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE SENATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, the reason I rise tonight is to 
follow up on my good friend Mr. Poe of Texas. He was talking about 45 
czars being appointed by the President to run this government in large 
part. The thing that bothers me about that and what Mr. Poe said is 
that these people do not have to go through the normal process of 
confirmation in the Senate.
  The reason we have that process of advice and consent of the Senate 
is to make sure that the people that are being appointed are not only 
capable of doing the job, but they don't have anything in their closets 
that is going to cause disrepute, disrespect, or anything on the 
administration. But the administration continues to appoint these 
people as czars in large part, I believe, because he doesn't want the 
American people to know their backgrounds.
  We've had people that have been appointed who are admitted 
Communists, people who have been appointed who have been involved in 
supporting nefarious activities and deviant kinds of activities, and it 
just seems to me that the American people need to know those things. 
But unfortunately, the administration continues to appoint these czars 
because they know they do not have to go through the confirmation 
process. I think that's just wrong.
  So, if I were talking to the President, I think if the American 
people were talking to the President tonight, as would Mr. Poe, my good 
friend from Texas, would like to say, Hey, let's have these people 
unveiled. Let's find out what they're all about before they take on 
positions of responsibility, positions that spend taxpayers' money and 
make decisions on how this government is run. We need to know what kind 
of people they are. We need to know their backgrounds.
  So I would just like to say, if I were talking to the President on 
behalf of the American people, Let's go through the regular process, 
Mr. President, just like you do with Cabinet appointees. Make sure that 
there is a background check done on them by the FBI so we know what 
they're about. Let's make sure they go through the confirmation 
process, through the Senate, through the committee system and are voted 
upon by the United States Senate so that they are confirmed. And if we 
do that, we'll know that they're competent people, honorable people who 
will do the job for the American people and not people that we're going 
to be embarrassed by later on.

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