Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I would like to propound a unanimous consent request. I think colleagues know we have run a little bit behind. I think we would end up being about 10 minutes late or thereabouts, between 20 of and quarter of.

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, there is a job opening at the Interior Department, and that can mean only one thing: another Trump nominee who, incredibly, is already under investigation for misconduct, even before his first day on the job. This time, it is Daniel Jorjani, a long-serving Trump Interior official who is up for a powerful role as the Department's Solicitor.

I say to the Presiding Officer and colleagues, I have put a hold on this nominee. If anything, the case for withholding action on this nominee has gotten greater in the last few days. Just in the last few days, the Department's inspector general has made it clear that this is an individual he is going to investigate. I will tell my colleagues that, if you are putting somebody already under investigation on a fast track to the Interior Department corruption hall of fame, right up there with Ryan Zinke, I believe that is a mistake the Senate is going to regret.

It probably doesn't take an inspector general investigation to uncover why this is a mistake. I am going to explain it this morning, briefly.

First, I believe it is important to start with an honest assessment of what Donald Trump appointees have done at the Interior Department. Under this President, it is often difficult for one agency's corruption to stand out above the rest, but somehow Interior Department officials manage to do that again and again.

Mr. Jorjani, a former industry adviser for Koch Industries, is an example of just this type of behavior. The Office of the Interior Solicitor is in charge of legal issues and ethics for the Department. It is a big team with a lot of power. Mr. Jorjani has been a key member of the Solicitor's office.

His own words indicate that he doesn't believe that his primary function at Interior is to protect public lands and uphold ethical standards. We have already heard discussion earlier this morning that he wrote to agency colleagues--and we have been quoting it--saying ``our job is to protect the Secretary.'' Those are his words, not the words of anybody here in the Senate. What Senators may not know is that Mr. Jorjani was talking about Ryan Zinke, who brought on a category 5 ethical hurricane during his brief time as Interior Secretary.

In the same email, Mr. Jorjani boasted about having impeded inspector general investigations into the misuse of taxpayer funds for travel. It wasn't just talk. The record shows that covering up dirty ethics and potential lawbreaking is routine for Mr. Jorjani. By my count, there are at least four investigations into wrongdoing at the Interior Department that were closed or found inconclusive due to a lack of cooperation or records production on Mr. Jorjani's watch.

These investigations covered a multitude of issues, from the potential misuse of expensive chartered travel to a halted study on the crucial health impacts of potentially dangerous Interior Department energy policies.

Then there is the issue of the Interior Department's new policy under the Trump administration with respect to the Freedom of Information Act. The new policy--and again, this is a retreat from public interest standards--gives political appointees unprecedented control over the Department's response to Freedom of Information Act requests. In my view, it looks like an effort to conceal the fact that Trump Interior officials are spending their days doing the bidding of a host of special interests.

There is clear evidence that this new secretive Freedom of Information Act policy was implemented under the Trump administration, that Mr. Jorjani knew about it, and that he was up to his eyeballs in putting this in motion.

When I asked Mr. Jorjani about the Freedom of Information Act policy during an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Mr. Jorjani actually claimed it didn't exist. He later told one of our colleagues, the distinguished Senator from Maine, Mr. King, that he had no involvement in Freedom of Information Act responses.

I want it understood that I believe Mr. Jorjani lied to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and perjured himself to that body.

Colleagues, I know that Members on both sides are concerned about what has happened with the Freedom of Information Act under this administration. I want to commend the several Republican Senators who have said that they are troubled about what this administration is doing with the Freedom of Information Act--the so-called ``awareness reviews'' by appointees that really aren't hard to figure out. It is about secretive political interference.

What we are seeing with the Freedom of Information Act is inconsistent with the intent of Congress, and it is wrong. The importance of government openness and honesty with the American people ought to be a bipartisan proposition. It is in the interest of everyone--Democrats and Republicans--to protect the Freedom of Information Act from evasion and protect it from abuse. That is part of why this new Interior policy on the Freedom of Information Act is so troubling.

As I mentioned, on Friday, the Interior inspector general confirmed to me that Mr. Jorjani is currently under investigation for his role in this Freedom of Information Act policy. For colleagues who may be following this, let's just understand what is going on: We are getting ready to vote on whether to advance somebody who is under a formal inspector general investigation. The fact that the inspector general is investigating such a serious matter ought to be enough all by itself to stop this nomination from going forward.

Certainly, Mr. Jorjani's own words about how he views the job--not about protecting the public but about protecting someone like Ryan Zinke--ought to be disqualifying. If Mr. Jorjani is confirmed, the person who will be in charge of ethics at the Interior Department told colleagues his job was to protect a crook. That is what he said.

Colleagues, this administration in too many instances has made deceit and unethical conduct the norm at the Interior Department. Trump officials have sidelined the Department's core purpose, which is to protect our treasured public lands on behalf of all Americans. Too often, it seems, they side with special interests that will pollute America's air, poison the drinking water, fuel climate change, and destroy the treasures that Americans all love.

At some point the U.S. Senate ought to draw the line. I think the Jorjani nomination is such a place.

I urge my colleagues to oppose the nomination. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting no.

Cloture Motion

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