Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, earlier today, we heard the French President address a joint meeting of Congress. He reminded us that the French and American people have always fought side by side to defend our common values. France was our original ally during the American Revolution.

Americans fought and died in France during World War I and World War II. Our alliance has spanned centuries because of diplomats who have cultivated the close relationship that the countries continue with today, and it is a shame we didn't have a Secretary of State of the United States who could have helped us welcome the French President during his visit here. We have a nominee who is eminently qualified-- Mike Pompeo--and Republicans are ready to confirm him right now. We were ready to confirm him last week. We are ready for him to get to work in maintaining and strengthening relationships around the world.

Under previous administrations, we could have brought the nomination to the floor of the Senate without needing to waste all of the time and the delays, by the Democrats, on a cloture vote. That is how we used to treat important national security positions like the Secretary of State but no more, apparently. That is what happened even when Senators disagreed with the administration's foreign policies.

Consider Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. The Republicans and Democrats agreed that the President deserved to have the team he wanted--the people he wanted--on the ground helping him. We all agreed some of these positions were very important to national security--so important that, in a bipartisan way, we felt that playing political games with them was just wrong. Apparently, that has changed in the eyes of the Democrats now that Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States.

When Barack Obama became President in 2009, the Republicans didn't obstruct his nomination of Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. No. She was confirmed by a vote of 94 to 2. Then, when President Obama nominated John Kerry for the job in 2013, the Republicans didn't slow down or block that choice either. He was confirmed by a vote of 94 to 3. The Republicans had serious concerns about President Obama's foreign policy ideas, his strategies, his approach, but we confirmed the people whom he wanted as his Secretary of State. We did not obstruct these nominations, and we didn't try to tarnish the reputations of the people whom he picked for these important jobs, not at all.

I think the Senate does have an obligation to carefully evaluate a President's nominees. When those nominees are qualified and capable, then the President has every right to have his team and have his team in place quickly. That was the standard the Republicans applied to these Democratic nominees for Secretary of State under a Democratic President.

What has happened since then? Why has all of this changed since then?

We now have a Republican President, and we have a Republican nominee to be Secretary of State. It seems the Senate Democrats have tossed out the way things have always been done before. ``No, we do not want to do it that way anymore.'' The only interest seems to be obstruction-- obstructing, delaying, resisting anything the Republicans, under President Trump, are trying to do, anything he is trying to do in terms of getting his team in place--a team he needs.

How does someone justify a vote for these two people to be Secretary of State--the Democrats and Republicans who voted for these two--and then turn around and not vote for Mike Pompeo? How can you justify that? I certainly cannot.

When Mike Pompeo was nominated to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, 15 Senators from the other side of the aisle were willing to set aside partisanship. They knew he was qualified for the job--first in his class at West Point, the Harvard Law Review, his activities as a Member of Congress. Everything he has done as the CIA Director has shown that those 15 Senators made the right call to support him over a year ago. They made the right call to join the Republicans and to respect the traditions of the Senate--to put qualified people on the job even if they may not have agreed completely with their philosophies on political issues.

There is no reason other than pure partisan politics that any of these Democrats would vote against Mike Pompeo now. He is eminently qualified. He showed during his confirmation hearing--he went through 5 hours of questioning--that he has the intelligence, he has the integrity, and he has the experience to serve as our Nation's Secretary of State.

Turn to the newspapers. You have the Washington Post coming out, writing: ``Confirm Mike Pompeo.'' You have USA TODAY coming out today and writing: ``Confirm Mike Pompeo.'' We even have the New York Daily News--the hometown newspaper of the leader of the Democratic Senate-- coming out and writing: ``Confirm Mike Pompeo.''

The Democrats in the Senate don't seem to care. It doesn't seem like they are interested in doing the right thing. They are interested in obstructing and continuing the history of the deliberate delays we have seen with them through this administration. They have been doing it since the very first day of the Trump administration. At this rate, it would take more than 9 years to confirm all of President Trump's nominees for important jobs. Why? The Democrats can't offer a single good reason. The Senate has been forced to waste huge amounts of time in confirming nominees who aren't even controversial at all.

When Senate Democrats try to block the President from filling important national security jobs, they are putting America's security in danger. We all know the world is a dangerous place and is getting more dangerous every day. Our adversaries are opportunistic. Our adversaries are aggressive. Our allies are eager to work with the United States. That is what the President of France told us today.

Have the Democrats already forgotten the atrocities we saw in Syria a few weeks ago? It was France and Great Britain that joined the President of the United States in launching airstrikes against Bashar Al-Assad's chemical weapons facilities.

We need to be able to maintain the relationships that allow this kind of action to occur. We need people on the job who can both encourage our allies and deter our enemies. The Senate Democrats have to decide what is more important to them--protecting America's national security or appeasing the extreme liberal, far leftwing of their party.

I understand if there are Senators who have principled reasons for objecting to this nominee or any nominee. They can vote no but not continue to hold up or slow down the process as they have done for a year and a half. I think, if a Senator is against a nominee, then come to the floor; state the objection; cite the evidence; vote no. Yet that is not what many Democrats here are doing with their obstruction of one nominee after another, and it is not what they have done with their obstructions of hundreds of nominees. For them, it doesn't seem, at least to me, to be a principled stand. It seems to be a reckless political stunt.

I listened to my colleagues on the Foreign Relations Committee the other evening when we voted on this nomination. I listened to the Democrats speak on the floor and speak to the press. Frankly, I have not heard a single good reason to delay the Senate's consideration of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State. The Democrats need to stop the games, stop the delays, allow us to move immediately to vote on his nomination, and get President Trump's Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, on the job.

Thank you.

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