Mr. President, today the Senate will proceed to consider the motion to proceed to a resolution of disapproval filed by the Republican leader, which would cause the country to default on its debts for the first time in its history. The…
Mr. President, today the Senate will proceed to consider the motion to proceed to a resolution of disapproval filed by the Republican leader, which would cause the country to default on its debts for the first time in its history. The Democrats will oppose this motion and vote to preserve the full faith and credit of our great country. I remind my Republican friends that every Democrat and 27 Republicans in the Senate, as well as 285 Members of the House of Representatives, already voted to do the right thing and pay the Nation's debts.
I look forward to quickly dispensing with this Republican resolution, which would risk America's economic security, as well as a global depression. This vote will take place this afternoon, after our weekly business meetings.
I want to spend a little bit of time talking about nominations. Directly after the vote on the default legislation, we will have the vote to break a filibuster of President Obama's nomination of Richard Griffin to serve as general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.
There have already been 67 of President Obama's nominations filibustered. Let's just vote on these nominations. I cannot imagine why it would be a good thing for this country, or the Senate, to not allow us to go forward on the nomination. If you don't like him, vote against him, but don't stop the debate from going forward.
If cloture is invoked, there will be up to 8 hours of debate under the new rules we have established in the Senate. We will have 4 hours and the minority will have 4 hours. So I think that would be appropriate.
Few Americans are aware of the job that the National Labor Relations
Board does. It looks out for the rights of millions of U.S. workers every day--Democratic workers, Republican workers, independents, tea party workers--regardless of whether they are in a union.
Mr. Griffin has extensive experience in employment law. He is highly respected by his fellow labor lawyers on both the union and the business sides. As general counsel for the NLRB, he will safeguard fair compensation and working conditions for all American workers.
This week the Senate will also vote on a number of other crucial executive nominations, some of which have been stalled for more than a year. The Senate will consider the nomination of Katherine Archuleta to serve as Director of the Office of Personnel Management. That is an extremely important position. She started her career in public service as an elementary school teacher. She will be the agency's first Hispanic director. Her desire to serve is earnest. This is what she said:
You do it [as a public service] because you have a deep
passion for public good, for civic engagement.
She has worked in both the Transportation and Energy Departments under President Clinton. She served as chief of staff to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis for 3 years. She is eminently qualified. Yet Ms. Archuleta is the first OPM Director to be filibustered in the entire history of this agency.
This week the Senate will also consider the stalled nomination of Alan Estevez to be Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. This man's nomination has been stalled for 402 days. He will be responsible for a $170 billion logistics budget--$170 billion. That is a year. This budget supports our men and women in uniform as well as millions of machines that take them where they want to go. He specialized in military logistics for more than 10 years. It is unfortunate that Republicans will hold up confirmation of such a crucial Defense Department nomination.
I am told most of it is that it is held up for an unrelated matter, dealing with some other issue. It is just wrong. If you do not like this guy, stand and say why you don't like him and vote against him. Don't stop us from moving forward on the nomination.
Most of the opposition to this man, who has been held up for 200 days, is, I am told, by the senior Senator from Texas.
The junior Senator from Texas has placed a hold on another nomination, a man by the name of Tom Wheeler to be Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, a very important agency. In addition to writing two books, Mr. Wheeler has founded several technological companies--important companies. He cofound the largest online targeted news service and helped develop the U.S. Government's telecommunications policy.
President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler as well as Republican Michael O'Rielly to fill two vacant seats on the FCC; so what is stopping us from filling these vacancies with a bipartisan pair of nominees? Listen to this. The Senator from Texas has stalled the nomination because he opposes legislation proposed by Democrats in Congress that would require shadowy groups that spend millions on political advertising to disclose their donors.
This next one is really a doozy: the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. It is an extremely important job. This man is qualified. He has run the Office of Management and Budget. He has been the President's Chief of Staff. He is now Secretary of the Treasury. What a fine, fine man--Jack Lew. Jack Lew, even though he is the Secretary of the Treasury of this great country, cannot go to meetings that other finance ministers from around the world can go to. Why? Because Republicans are holding up his nominations to all these important bank boards, finance boards, the International Monetary Fund. He is supposed to be there. He cannot go.
He is a talented and dedicated public servant. He has already been approved by the Senate, confirmed by the Senate. Every Treasury Secretary serves as the U.S. representative on the international bank boards and offers input on America's position on global financial matters. That is his job. He cannot do that because of what I have just said. It is an embarrassment that we have not acted more swiftly to confirm him in this role. To think that we have to file cloture on this. Yet the junior Senator from Kentucky has subjected this nomination to partisan wrangling--and others have joined with him, I assume--as he threatens to do with the nomination of Janet Yellen to serve as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
The Presiding Officer and others who serve in this body and have served in the House of Representatives have served with a fine public servant by the name of Mel Watt. I got to know Mel Watt when he was chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. He would come over and visit with me every month or so--a fine man. He has represented North Carolina's 12th Congressional District since 1993, and as senior Member of the House Financial Services Committee he understands the mistakes that led to the housing crisis.
He also has proposed legislation to crack down on the worst abuses in mortgage lending and helped to pass the Dodd-Frank bill to prevent predatory lending. By any measure Congressman Watt is qualified to help struggling homeowners recover from the worst downturn in generations. My Republican colleagues should give him the up-or-down vote he deserves, not filibuster him.
I know some Republicans do not like Dodd-Frank. Obviously, they didn't mind the abuses that took place that led to the crashing of Wall Street. But he should not be punished for that.
At a time when America faces difficult economic times at home and various threats abroad, it is crucial the Senate confirm these talented and dedicated individuals to serve in the executive branch of government. Let us vote on these nominations. These normally easily confirmable positions should not have a filibuster. Not long ago I can remember Republicans who, in this body, were concerned because they could not get the votes they wanted on their nominees for President Bush. They spread on this record, clearly, that it is a right of the President to choose the players on his team. We should return to that custom, remove partisanship from the confirmation process and ensure highly qualified nominees receive the fair and speedy confirmation they deserve.