Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007

Floor Speech

PRESERVING UNITED STATES ATTORNEY INDEPENDENCE ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 22, 2007)

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Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, last year, during the conference process on reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act, a check on executive power simply disappeared. In its place, the Republican majority overseeing the conference put in a provision removing the court from the process of appointment and authorizing the Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. attorneys indefinitely.

The Senator who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time said recently that he did not realize the provision was in the bill passed last year until a colleague alerted him to it last month. I don't think anyone was surprised to learn that after the investigation, the former chairman learned that the language had been requested by the Department of Justice. The language was apparently presented by a DOJ employee who is now the U.S. attorney in Utah. Before Senator Specter made these comments, the only legislative history of this amendment was one sentence in the conference report that said the new section ``addresses an inconsistency in the appointment process of U.S. attorneys.''

As we receive more information about the Department of Justice and White House interaction leading up to the dismissal of eight, now nine, U.S. attorneys, the appearance of a political basis for the removals becomes more clear. U.S. attorneys are the chief Federal law enforcement officers in their districts. We rely on them to enforce the law without political prejudice.

One of the former U.S. attorneys who testified before our Judiciary subcommittee recently said that former Attorney General Ashcroft made a point in their first conversation to say that U.S. attorneys have to leave politics at the door. This bill that is before the House today would reinstate a system that encourages politics to be left at the door during the appointment process and creates a check on the system if the executive branch cannot bring itself to do that.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I have to add that I have been dismayed in reviewing some of the terms provided to the Judiciary Committee relative to communications between the DOJ. Historically the American people have been able to rely on the Department of Justice to stay above the political fray, especially when it comes to prosecutors. Watergate should have indelibly impressed this lesson upon future administrations, but clearly in this case it did not.

I ask my colleagues to support this legislation and to refute Kyle Sampson's statement when he said, ``The only thing at risk here is a repeal of the AG's appointment authority. House Members won't care about this at all. All we need is for one Senator to object to the language.''

The House of Representatives does care about political independence. We do believe that the executive branch should not ignore legislative branch authority. We should refute the Department's slow march to cooperating with our oversight efforts, and we need to reinstate this important check on the executive branch authority to appoint U.S. attorneys.

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