[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 19168-19170]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           JOHNSON NOMINATION

  Mr. CARPER. I am proud to rise to speak in strong support of the 
nomination of Jeh Johnson to serve as the

[[Page 19169]]

Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. As my colleagues 
know, I have been concerned for many months about the high number of 
senior-level vacancies that exist at the Department. In fact, the 
Department of Homeland Security has been without a Senate-confirmed 
Deputy Secretary since April and without a Senate-confirmed Secretary 
since early September. That is simply too long for such critical 
positions to be vacant, especially since the Department of Homeland 
Security has been without Senate-confirmed leadership in a number of 
other senior leadership positions too.
  That list of vacancies includes the position of Deputy Secretary, as 
well as the heads of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement, and the Inspector General.
  Working with the President, we need to do something about it. Today 
we can. It is my hope and expectation that we will vote to confirm a 
new Secretary to lead the Department within the next few hours, 
allowing Jeh Johnson to be sworn in and start work later this week.
  Getting a Secretary of Homeland Security quickly confirmed is 
essential to help effectively run this Department and protect the 
safety of our citizens. This Department is a large and complex entity 
with a diverse set of missions and challenges.
  It is composed of 22 distinct agencies spread across various 
locations throughout the country. In the 10 years after its creation, 
the Department of Homeland Security still lacks a strong sense of 
cohesion.
  Moreover, given the Nation's fiscal challenges, the Department, as 
many Federal agencies, is being asked to do more and get even better 
results with fewer Federal dollars.
  That being said, over its 10 years, the Department has celebrated a 
number of important milestones. In fact, only last week, for the first 
time ever, the Department of Homeland Security received a clean 
financial audit.
  There is one outlier among the major departments of our government 
that hasn't received that clean financial audit, and that is the 
Department of Defense, which has been around for approximately 70 
years.
  The Department of Homeland Security took 10 years and has been on the 
GAO high-risk list for all of those 10 years. I was delighted when I 
received word last week that this goal had been achieved. It is a major 
accomplishment and one for which I heartily congratulate the 
Department.
  There is an old saying that goes something such as this: You can't 
manage what you can't measure.
  Now the Department of Homeland Security achieved a clean financial 
audit. It is my hope that its financial management practices will 
continue to improve. In order to build upon this and other successes, I 
believe the Department needs Senate-confirmed leadership.
  There is no doubt that even on a good day, serving as Secretary of 
the Department of Homeland Security is a very hard job. Jeh Johnson, 
however, is no doubt up to this enormous task. Again, I strongly 
support his nomination.
  Mr. Johnson is a seasoned national security expert who is eminently 
qualified to take the reins to run the challenging Department of 
Homeland Security. After graduating from Morehouse College and then 
Columbia Law School, Jeh Johnson started his career in private 
practice. Later he became an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern 
District of New York, where he prosecuted public corruption cases. He 
then returned to the private sector where he became a partner with the 
law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
  While working with this law firm, Mr. Johnson again answered the call 
to public service, first as the Air Force's top lawyer during the 
second term of the Clinton administration and, more recently, in the 
first term of the Obama administration, as the top lawyer for the 
entire Department of Defense. In both positions he was confirmed by the 
Senate with strong bipartisan support.
  Having served in such important positions at the Department of 
Defense has no doubt helped him develop a number of outstanding skills 
that will enable him to lead this Department effectively.
  There are few better places to learn how to manage a complex national 
security bureaucracy than at the Department of Defense. For example, 
for 4 years he was a partner and a part of the senior leadership team 
that ran the Defense Department. He played a critical role in 
overseeing more than 3 million military and civilian personnel 
scattered around the country and across the world, including having 
direct responsibility for nearly 10,000 attorneys.
  He provided key advice to two exceptional Defense Secretaries--Bob 
Gates and Leon Panetta--and was an important member of their management 
teams. To me, this is an invaluable experience for the huge task to 
which he has been nominated.
  He also participated in almost every discussion of consequence for 
the Department, helping to shape the policies that directly impacted 
the lives of our brave men and women in uniform and their families.
  In fact, during his time at the Pentagon, Mr. Johnson developed a 
reputation for tackling some of the toughest issues in the Department 
of Defense and finding a way to build consensus and develop thoughtful 
and effective policy. For example, he won praise from both sides of the 
aisle for his work on the issue of don't ask, don't tell and on the 
military commission system.
  Additionally, Mr. Johnson was an influential member of the 
President's national security team and helped design and implement many 
of the country's policies to fight terrorism and dismantle the core of 
Al Qaeda. Because of his experience in these positions and in other 
commanding roles, Mr. Johnson is well prepared to face the challenges 
that will await him if he is confirmed by the Senate today.
  People don't have to take my word for it. Mr. Johnson has received 
high praise from many distinguished former government officials from 
both sides of the aisle.
  In a letter to our Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs, for example, every single former Secretary of that 
Department--Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, and Janet Napolitano--lauded 
Mr. Johnson as an ``eminently qualified nominee.''
  They went on further to state, and I paraphrase: Jeh Johnson's 
service at the highest levels of the Department of Defense--the largest 
government agency in the world--provided him a keen understanding of 
how to successfully execute large-scale operational missions of varying 
complexity and purpose.
  This is what former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, a highly regarded 
and much-admired manager himself, said about Jeh Johnson and his time 
at the Department of Defense:

       Take my word for it: [Jeh Johnson] has successfully managed 
     an array of major initiatives across the biggest bureaucracy 
     in the government--and, in so doing, won the esteem of 
     virtually everyone with whom he worked.

  Similarly, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said this about Jeh 
Johnson:

       Jeh has proven himself to be a talented, capable, 
     bipartisan, and trusted public servant. I give my strongest 
     recommendation and full support to his confirmation as the 
     Nation's next Secretary of Homeland Security.

  Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, 
who stepped down in late 2011, has also expressed his deep confidence 
in the nominee, stating:

       Jeh Johnson is as fine a person and professional as I have 
     ever met.

  I wish to state that again. Admiral Mike Mullen states:

       Jeh Johnson is as fine a person and professional as I have 
     ever met. I am confident in his choice and that he will 
     succeed in leading this most complex organization at a 
     critical time in our country.

  Mr. Johnson has also received encouraging words and praise from a

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number of law enforcement groups, including the Major Cities Chiefs 
Association and the national Fraternal Order of Police.
  I would also add that at Mr. Johnson's confirmation hearing, our 
ranking member, Dr. Coburn, made known his support for Jeh Johnson and 
even went so far as to ask him to consider staying on as Secretary 
after the 2016 election, a high compliment indeed. I might add as an 
aside, Mr. Johnson's wife was sitting immediately behind him, and when 
Dr. Coburn asked for that assurance from the nominee, I wasn't sure if 
she was going to come out of her seat--and it wasn't in support of the 
idea.
  Mr. Johnson is undoubtedly a highly skilled leader. He is just the 
type of person that we need for this extremely important and 
challenging position.
  Mr. Johnson, of course, will not be alone in the task of leading the 
Department of Homeland Security. It is critically important that Mr. 
Johnson be allowed to surround himself with a capable leadership team. 
We can help. Indeed, we must help.
  At the Department of Homeland Security alone, there are 14 
Presidentially appointed positions that are without a permanent 
replacement. Of these, 10 require Senate confirmation. This is an 
edition of what I call executive branch Swiss cheese.
  As we consider Mr. Johnson's nomination, we must remember that 
protecting the homeland is a team sport, and those of us in the 
legislative branch are critical members of this important team. If Mr. 
Johnson is confirmed, we must do our part to expeditiously, but 
thoroughly, vet and confirm his leadership team as well.
  We need to put aside our partisan differences, work together, and 
give the President and the Department the entire team it needs to 
better protect our homeland. That includes confirming Ali Mayorkas for 
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
  Today the question before us is Mr. Johnson's nomination. For my 
colleagues still on the fence about Mr. Johnson's nomination, I leave 
us with a few thoughts on his character and his integrity. I have 
gotten to know Jeh Johnson very well over the last couple of months. I 
have been impressed by his forthrightness, his thoughtfulness, his core 
values, and his impeccable moral character, as well as his deep 
commitment to public service and serving our Nation. He treasures his 
family, and he strives to honor the legacy through his work.
  I had the privilege of meeting several members of his family at the 
confirmation hearing last month. His wife is an accomplished 
professional in her own right. In fact, Jeh met his wife when she was 
practicing dentistry--and I think he might have been the patient.
  Together they are the proud parents of two young adults that any 
parent would be proud to call their own. He is also a devoted son and 
brother. Although they could not attend his confirmation hearing, I 
know his parents are deeply proud of the son that they raised.
  I noticed in his confirmation hearing that Jeh proudly wore a pin 
that was his grandfather's. His great-grandfather worked as a Pullman 
train car porter in the early 20th century. I think that quiet 
statement says a lot about the importance of family to Jeh and how the 
values and character his family instilled in him are always with him.
  It is clear he is a student of history and draws inspiration from the 
civil rights movement. One of Jeh Johnson's guiding principles is a 
lesson he learned from Dr. Benjamin ``Bennie'' Mays, the former 
president of Morehouse College and a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, 
Jr., who said, ``You earn a living by what you get; you earn a life by 
what you give.'' Think about that for a second. ``You earn a living by 
what you get; you earn a life by what you give.'' Think about that and 
think about all the times Jeh Johnson has left the comforts of the 
private sector--three times before--so that he could give back and 
serve the people of our country as a leader in our government. With 
that in mind, I think we know what kind of leader we are getting in Jeh 
Johnson and what he will bring to the Department of Homeland Security.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in voting today for Jeh Johnson.
  I thank the Chair, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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