[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Page 1239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           JOHNSON NOMINATION

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I will be brief. The vote that just 
occurred was a vote on the nomination of Martha Johnson, of Maryland, 
to head the General Services Administration. That vote was reported by 
the committee unanimously to the U.S. Senate on June 8 of last year--
June 8 of last year. It has been blocked since that moment, and now we 
have a vote. We didn't have a vote in July, August, September, October, 
November, December, or January; we had it now, 7 or 8 months later. 
After blocking it for 7 or 8 months, 92 Senators voted yes. Explain to 
the American people how you block a nomination for 7 months that you 
support. Try to explain that. In my judgment, it is a shameful 
disrespect for good government to block nominations for month after 
month after month.
  The same is true with individual issues that are brought to the floor 
of the Senate. I will give you a couple of examples. An appropriations 
bill was blocked on the floor of the Senate, and then 80 people voted 
yes. A credit card holders' bill of rights was blocked in the Senate, 
and then 90 people voted yes. The Department of Defense appropriations 
was filibustered in the Senate, and then 88 Senators voted yes on that.
  If ever there were a demonstration for all to see how unbelievably 
broken this process is, it is today, once again, that after 7 or 8 
months, a very qualified candidate, reported out unanimously from the 
committee of jurisdiction to head the GSA now gets 92 people to vote 
yes, which means we have a lot of people who block things they intend 
to vote for later. It is an unbelievable example of why this place 
doesn't work. A minimum amount of cooperation, in my judgment, would go 
a long way to helping make this place work the way it should. This 
nomination should have taken 10 minutes on the floor of the Senate last 
June after it was reported out unanimously by the committee of 
jurisdiction.
  If I sound irritated by what is going on, I think a good many Members 
of the Senate are irritated by what I believe is a show of disrespect 
for good government.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana is recognized.

                          ____________________