[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 19180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 NOMINATION OF JEH CHARLES JOHNSON TO BE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The bill clerk read the nomination of Jeh Charles Johnson, of New 
Jersey, to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Cloture having been invoked, under the 
previous order all postcloture time is yielded back.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Jeh Charles Johnson, of New Jersey, to be Secretary of Homeland 
Security.
  Mr. COATS. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. 
Graham), the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Kirk), the Senator from Arizona 
(Mr. McCain), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Paul), and the Senator 
from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  The result was announced--yeas 78, nays 16, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 276 Ex.]

                                YEAS--78

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--16

     Boozman
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Fischer
     Grassley
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Lee
     McConnell
     Portman
     Risch
     Rubio
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shelby

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Blunt
     Graham
     Kirk
     McCain
     Paul
     Vitter
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am pleased to support the confirmation of 
Jeh Johnson to be the Secretary of Homeland Security. Mr. Johnson's 
distinguished career in public service, including his service as a 
Federal prosecutor and as general counsel of the Department of Defense, 
will suit him well as he takes on this new and very challenging 
responsibility. I look forward to inviting Mr. Johnson to testify 
before the Senate Judiciary Committee for an oversight hearing in the 
new year, which he has committed to do. Mr. Johnson will oversee many 
issues within the Judiciary Committee's jurisdiction, not the least of 
which is Federal immigration policy.
  I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Johnson recently and discuss 
some of the issues that have been of interest to me over the last 
several years. I encouraged him to continue to support the exceptional 
work U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro 
Mayorkas has done to make USCIS a better, stronger agency. In 
particular, I encouraged Mr. Johnson to build upon Director Mayorkas' 
work to strengthen and improve the EB-5 Regional Center Program, which 
is a successful, job-creating immigration program that has transformed 
parts of Vermont and other communities across the country. I look 
forward to working with Mr. Johnson and Director Mayorkas following his 
confirmation as Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security to continue the 
partnership the Senate Judiciary Committee developed with USCIS to make 
the improvements necessary to maintain the highest standards of 
integrity in this important program, and to sustain it as a significant 
economic engine for the United States.
  I relayed to Mr. Johnson my concerns about Border Patrol checkpoints 
in the interior of the country, such as the one that the previous 
administration implemented and operated nearly 100 miles south of the 
Canadian border on Interstate 91 in Vermont. Over the past several 
years, I have heard from many Vermonters who find the idea of a Federal 
checkpoint 100 miles from the Canadian border, deep into the State of 
Vermont, entirely inconsistent with Vermont values and an overbearing 
Federal presence that creates an environment susceptible to racial 
profiling and the needless harassment of law abiding citizens. I 
continue to have serious questions about the effectiveness of 
checkpoints such as these, especially when weighed against the 
significant intrusion into the privacy of Americans.
  I also discussed with Mr. Johnson my concerns related to the 
treatment of Americans returning to the United States, in particular 
the practice of CBP officials conducting warrantless searches of 
Americans' persons and belongings, including conducting forensic 
searches of electronic devices. These searches within the border zone 
are not subject to the usual protections provided by the Fourth 
Amendment to Americans. Recent CBP activities have raised serious 
questions about whether Federal officials are circumventing the 
protections of the Fourth Amendment by conducting opportunistic 
searches on individuals when those officials know they will be 
reentering the United States. As I wrote in a letter to the current 
acting secretary, such authority must be used with great restraint. I 
look forward to continuing my discussions about these important issues 
with Mr. Johnson.
  Finally, I will seek to work with Mr. Johnson to address the 
overbroad material support bar in our immigration law. It has resulted 
in people, including vulnerable refugees, being unfairly barred from 
the United States based solely on de minimus commercial or social 
conduct that has negligible connection to the support of terrorism. One 
example involves an individual who sold flowers to members of a 
terrorist group, and is now considered to have provided ``material 
support'' to terrorism. That simply does not make sense and must be 
changed. As I have with his predecessors, I will urge Mr. Johnson to 
address this unjust situation as soon as possible after he takes 
office.
  I congratulate Jeh Johnson on his confirmation and look forward to 
working with him as Secretary of Homeland Security.

                          ____________________