[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3543-3545]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

  NOMINATION OF CARLOS A. MONJE, JR., TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF 
                             TRANSPORTATION

                                 ______
                                 

 NOMINATION OF MANSON K. BROWN TO BE AN ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations, 
which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read the nominations of Carlos 
A. Monje, Jr., of Louisiana, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
Transportation; and Manson K. Brown, of the District of Columbia, to be 
an Assistant Secretary of Commerce.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). Under the previous order, there 
will be 30 minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
  The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I would like to speak on the confirmation 
of both nominees, but first of all, I want to render a courtesy to the 
Senator from Connecticut--if he needs to complete his statement, I will 
yield to him and he can ask it in the form of a question.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. I want to express my appreciation to the Senator from 
Florida, whose model I am seeking to follow not only in expertise but 
also in graciousness and generosity.
  It appears to me that we are in the midst of yet again considering 
nominations, so I would ask the Senator from Florida whether in his 
view his speaking now and our voting now on these nominations will 
detract in any way from the Senate's consideration of the trafficking 
bill and whether our voting on Loretta Lynch would in any way detract 
from our consideration of the trafficking bill.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, my response to the Senator is that, just 
as with the two nominees we will favorably consider today, which have 
been bipartisan, with the great support of Senator Thune, the chairman 
of the Commerce Committee--those are not going to interfere with the 
trafficking bill. So, too, the President's choice--which came 
overwhelmingly out of the Committee on the Judiciary--for Attorney 
General likewise would not in any way hinder the trafficking bill if, 
in fact, we could get up the nominee, because the votes would obviously 
be there. So my answer to the Senator is that clearly it would not 
hinder the trafficking bill.
  Mr. President, I rise in support of the confirmation of two public 
servants into leadership roles at NOAA--the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration--and the Department of Transportation. One 
is Admiral Manson Brown. Admiral Brown has served our country with 
distinction for over 30 years, most recently as an officer in the U.S. 
Coast Guard. What made him successful in the Coast Guard is going to be 
put to great use as Assistant Secretary for Environmental Observation 
and Prediction at NOAA. Hurricane season is right around the corner. 
His position is going to provide crucial guidance and accountability if 
that big storm starts swirling in a counterclockwise fashion headed to 
the mainland. So I, this Senator from Florida, am particularly 
appreciative of Senator Thune for helping expedite this confirmation.
  This role will also oversee continued efforts to modernize NOAA. Now 
we are frequently launching up-to-date best technology weather 
satellites. NASA builds them, NASA launches them, and NOAA operates 
them. They are critical in giving us the refined capability to 
determine the ferociousness of a storm and its track.
  As a highly regarded officer, Admiral Brown has honed significant 
expertise in his leadership in the Coast Guard maritime stewardship, 
safety, and national security. He is an engineer.

[[Page 3544]]

  In our Senate Commerce Committee, we hold Admiral Brown in such high 
regard that we have reported his nomination favorably twice--once last 
Congress and again during our very first markup--and it was unanimous.
  The second nominee is Mr. Carlos Monje, an Assistant Secretary for 
Policy. He will play a major, important role in shaping national 
transportation policy and priorities.
  The Department of Transportation, for example, plays a critical role 
in helping ensure safety in the airspace as well as protecting 
consumers.
  Last Friday, since I did not go back to my State, I went with the FAA 
Administrator to the Next Generation air traffic control modernization 
to see progress that is being made in the FAA research and development 
center at the Atlantic City Airport. NextGen capitalizes on existing 
technologies, such as the GPS capability provided by the Department of 
Defense satellite network, and what it will do is make our air traffic 
control system safer and more efficient.
  How that works is right now we have a series of radars, and if it is 
an up-to-date radar, it will go around every 20 seconds. So you know 
where the airplane was, but you don't know where it is for the next 20 
seconds--until the radar comes back around. If it is where it should 
be, it is in the path that was filed by the crew.
  The next generation of air traffic control will track that aircraft 
from satellites, so there will be a continuous feed of data from the 
aircraft to the satellites, back to the controllers on the ground. 
Because of that, they can space aircraft closer, and they can give them 
a direct route into the airport instead of a lot of the circular 
patterns they have because of the delay in the continuous tracking. As 
a result, they can save a lot of money for the airlines because they 
can be more fuel efficient, instead of the present step system--if you 
own an airliner and you are going into an airport, you are going to go 
through a series of steps. Air traffic control is going to tell you to 
descend to such-and-such at such-and-such heading, and you are going to 
go there. All of this continuous conversation is going on and having to 
be acknowledged by the cockpit crew until they tell you to descend to 
the next step down.
  What the new Next Generation system will do is it will eliminate that 
step system because there will be a continuous feed. It will eliminate 
a lot of the human conversation, some of which gets misunderstood, 
because all of that continuous communication will be between the air 
traffic controller and the aircraft via communication of satellite. As 
a result, they will be able to give an aircraft a direct route--not 
through steps, not all that conversation--of descent into the airport, 
saving a lot of potential mistakes in human communication as well as 
saving a lot of fuel instead of having to power up and power down as 
the aircraft goes through each of those steps.
  Implementing the Next Generation air traffic control modernization is 
going to be just one of the many transportation policy challenges that 
we will face and that we are developing and that we have already 
implemented on a trial basis in a couple of airports and in some 
airplanes.
  The Department of Transportation also plays a critical role in 
ensuring vehicle safety through its National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration. And, of course, you have been reading the stories 
there--brakes that don't work, ignition switches that accidentally turn 
off when jostled by key chains, and now deadly airbag failures that 
cause the steering wheel containing an airbag to be a lethal weapon 
because it is faulty and it shreds metal in the explosion. We have had 
five deaths in this country alone that have already been reported.
  So these nominees are assuming extremely important roles in the U.S. 
Government. I think the way Senator Thune has handled these nominees as 
our chairman in the Commerce Committee has been admirable, and I thank 
him for the bipartisanship he has shown. We commend to the Senate these 
two nominees who will be voted on at 5:30.
  Mr. GRASSLEY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, will the kind Senator from Iowa yield for 
one request? I neglected to say something earlier.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I will.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Iowa. He is very 
kind.
  Our former colleague, Senator Landrieu, is in the Gallery in order to 
see the confirmation vote of Carlos Monje, who is from her State of 
Louisiana.
  I thank the Senator from Iowa.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  (The remarks of Mr. Grassley are printed in today's Record during 
consideration of S. 178.)
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I yield back all of our remaining time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  All time is yielded back.


                        Vote On Monje Nomination

  Under the previous order, the question occurs on the Monje 
nomination.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Carlos A. Monje, Jr., of Louisiana, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
Transportation?
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Flake), 
the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Illinois 
(Mr. Kirk), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) is 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 71 Ex.]

                                YEAS--94

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Franken
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Cruz
     Flake
     Graham
     Kirk
     Sanders
     Vitter
  The nomination was confirmed.


                        Vote on Brown Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is, 
Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Manson K. 
Brown, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of 
Commerce?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to 
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's actions.

[[Page 3545]]



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