Unanimous Consent Requests--Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, thank you. I have some brief remarks, and I want to thank my friend, the Senator from New Jersey, who will move in a few moments to have this Chamber approve a number of critical nominees for our national security and is going to be, shamefully, blocked.

He has been a great fighter not only for these men and women, but on foreign policy in general, one of the great leaders. And his passion for this issue comes from a desire to have us have the greatest strength abroad diplomatically and geopolitically as well. So I cannot thank him enough.

Mr. President, of all the mandates of the government, the most important is protecting the American people from threats foreign or domestic. To do so, the President relies on an army of dedicated public servants--our expert Ambassadors, Diplomats, Under Secretaries, and Assistant Secretaries, who play a critical role in our government.

But for months, Senate Republicans have gone to great lengths to place pointless holds on over 100 of these nominees. The consequence is scores of empty desks in the State Department and in our Embassies and the Department of the Treasury and other Agencies.

These nominees are not controversial. They are routinely confirmed by consent in this Chamber, until a few people decided that they wanted to make a big show of this for whatever reason. No one ever did this before. No one ever did this--maybe one individual nominee here or there, but not all of the nominees. It is so risky to the security of the United States.

By this point in the Trump administration, for instance, both sides worked together to confirm 32 Ambassadors by voice vote. Most of us didn't like the Trump administration or the people he was appointing, but we had enough integrity, enough faith in the future of this country and the strength of this country not to let politics enter into what had been routine decisions.

Right now, Republican obstructionism has meant only four nominees have been agreed to. So the bottom line is--let me be clear-- Republicans who are holding up these nominees are endangering our national security, making it harder for our country to respond to threats at home and abroad.

We hear a lot of talk about national security on the other side, but what it comes down to is that they are preventing 32 State Department nominees and 10 Defense Department nominees for quick confirmation. That is wrong, and I would hope that they would think about it and let these fine people go through the way that has been done under Democratic and Republican administrations in the past.

Mr. President, of all the mandates of government, the most important is protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. To do so, the President relies on an army of dedicated public servants: our expert diplomats, ambassadors, Under Secretaries, and Assistant Secretaries who play a critical role in our government.

But for months, some Senate Republicans have gone to great lengths to place pointless holds on over 100 of these nominees. The consequence has been scores of empty desks in the State Department, in our embassies, in the Department of the Treasury and countless other agencies.

These nominees are not controversial; they are routinely confirmed by consent in this Chamber. By this point in the Trump Administration, both sides worked together to confirm 32 ambassadors by voice vote. But right now, Republican obstruction has meant only four such nominees have been agreed to.

Let me be clear: Republicans who are holding up these nominees are endangering our national security and making it harder for our country to respond to threats at home and abroad.

Our Republican counterparts always like to talk a good game on national security concerns, but when it comes down to it they are preventing 32 State Department nominees and at least 10 Department of Defense nominees from quick confirmation. All of these are career national security professionals who are eager to return to public service and project American strength abroad.

This is not how the Senate normally works to process these dedicated public servants. Indeed, a number of our colleagues on the other side have complained that the Senate is taking up a lot of time processing these individuals.

If Republicans take issue with the amount of time we are taking, they should speak with their own members who are directly prolonging the process through their obstruction. Republicans could decide right now to allow these nominees to go by consent.

This Chamber, under this leadership, is not tolerating a few Members who want to muck up the confirmation process just to make a scene.

In the weeks and months to come we are going to work through these nominees as long as it takes. I hope that our Republican colleagues immediately drop their objections and give President Biden the officials he needs in place to keep the American people safe.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source