[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 755-756]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      NOMINATION OF REX TILLERSON

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I came to the floor yesterday to voice my 
serious concerns with some of the remarks made by the Secretary of 
State nominee, Rex Tillerson, in his hearing.
  I was worried that his milquetoast posture toward Russia, especially 
his failure to support strong U.S. sanctions--existing or proposed--
bespoke a fundamental misreading of the geopolitical climate and the 
true nature of our international security challenges.
  I was worried that, as Secretary of State, he only promised to recuse 
himself from matters involving Exxon for a period of 12 months. Exxon's 
interests overseas aren't going away after 1 year. That is not good 
enough to resolve what is, potentially, a massive conflict of interest.
  I am worried that Mr. Tillerson, as CEO and chairman of ExxonMobil, 
conducted business with all three foreign state sponsors of terrorism 
through a foreign subsidiary in a way that allowed Exxon to evade U.S. 
sanctions. As the head of Exxon, Mr. Tillerson did business with the 
terrorism trifecta: Iran, Syria, and Sudan. This raises serious 
questions that the man who is nominated to be the face of the United 
States to the world has so much experience doing business with our most 
prominent and concerning adversaries.
  At the hearing, under questions from the senior Senator from New 
Jersey and the Senator from Oregon, Mr. Tillerson denied having 
knowledge of these dealings and directed the Senators to seek more 
information from ExxonMobil itself. Three times he told the committee 
that he ``did not recall'' any of the details. Throughout the 
afternoon, it sounded like he was following the dodgeball rules for 
confirmation hearings: Dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge. In fact, he 
basically admitted it to the junior Senator from Virginia.
  I just read in the Washington Post that, on three separate occasions, 
the SEC, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote letters 
directed to Mr. Tillerson himself seeking more information on these 
undisclosed dealings during his tenure as CEO and chairman--once on 
January 6, 2006, once on May 4, 2006, and again on December 1, 2010.
  In general, I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. But it 
gives me great concern that Mr. Tillerson says he has zero recollection 
of an SEC inquiry into his company's business dealings with foreign 
state sponsors of terrorism--real concern. He got three letters from 
the SEC on a matter of major, major importance that would concern the 
whole corporation--the

[[Page 756]]

giant ExxonMobil--and he says he doesn't recall. This is the kind of 
matter that should be handled and approved by an organization's most 
senior leader.
  Mr. Tillerson presents himself as a hands-on manager. It defies 
credibility to believe he doesn't recall. This is extraordinarily 
troubling because either one of two things is true. Either Mr. 
Tillerson was aware of these SEC letters and was familiar with these 
dealings but didn't want to answer the questions honestly, or, indeed, 
he had no knowledge of consequential financial disclosures made by his 
own company. If we consider that, in concert with all the other things 
he claimed to have ``no knowledge of''--including the widely reported 
extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, whether or not Saudi Arabia 
was a human rights violator--imagine, he had no knowledge of whether 
Saudi Arabia was a human rights violator; people in a fifth grade world 
history class would know that--whether or not his company was engaged 
in lobbying against, or perhaps for, energy sanctions--then maybe Mr. 
Tillerson does not have the necessary management skills or knowledge 
base to be the chief diplomat of the United States of America, running 
a Department that is obviously worldwide, farflung, and with thousands 
and thousands and thousands of employees.
  Simply put, we need answers. What did Mr. Tillerson know and when did 
he know it? The American people expect their Secretary of State to be 
straightforward and honest with them--not coy, not dissembling. Most 
importantly, they expect him or her to have the interests of the 
American people and our friends and allies around the world at the 
forefront of their mind.
  Unfortunately for Mr. Tillerson, and for this country, yesterday's 
hearings and today's reports raise more questions than answers. The 
American people deserve answers.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________