Press Conference With Senator Patrick Leahy, Senator Charles Grassley; Senator Ted Kaufman
Press Conference
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SEN. LEAHY: Good morning. We bring you all the news from the Judiciary Committee.
The Senate today voted overwhelmingly to pass a bipartisan Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, the vote is still going on, but we only had about three or four people vote no.
Our lead Republican sponsor, Senator Grassley, has been a leader, not only in drafting the legislation, but moving it through the floor, even to be willing to stay here last Saturday to help us get votes for cloture. Senator Kaufman has been an original co-sponsor of the legislation. He's spoken about it a great deal. He's written about fraud enforcement all year and, of course, until now, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Specter, joined our efforts after the committee -- (inaudible) -- measure earlier this year.
Its actually been 30 Senators who have co-sponsored it, 90 percent of the Senate voting for it. I was worried when it kept getting held up, kept getting held up because this is a case, are you against crime or not? And it's fairly easy, I would hope for everybody to say, they're against crime.
President Obama delivered on his commitment during the campaign to crack down on mortgage fraud. In his budget outline, he called for additional FBI agents to investigate mortgage fraud, white-collar crime, more federal prosecutors. This is all going to do that. And you all have the breakdown and we'll pass out the breakdown, but it comes down to this: You have unscrupulous people, especially in an economic time that are preying on Americans. They're ending up stealing, literally, their homes, stealing everything that they have set aside for their retirement, in many cases, your home is your retirement, money that families have set aside to put their kids through college and these unscrupulous people get away with it because they fall outside our normal regulatory framework. We're stopping that. We're going to go after them.
And I want to go after them in a way where it's not just getting back money or getting fines because if you've stolen $100 million, you've got to pay $10 million in fines, it's the cost of doing business. I want them to go to jail. I want them to sit in a little, tiny cell for years and years and years and think of the lives they've ruined.
Senator Grassley?
SEN. GRASSLEY: Yeah. Thank you.
SEN. LEAHY: Who was indispensable in getting this bill through.
SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, thank you very much. It's cooperation and teamwork what gets anything done in the United States Senate, and I appreciate your teamwork, particularly working together, to put together a darn good bill that will show the American people that we're taking their tax dollars seriously and we're committed to routing out fraud, waste and mismanagement in government programs and the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars.
He's already referred to it, Senator Leahy has about this legislation, bringing the False Claims Act back to its original intent and as the author of those key Tam amendments in 1986 to the False Claims Act, I think I know a little bit about what original intent of that legislation was. Well, in recent years since that bill was signed into law and its brought back $22 billion to the federal Treasury and has deterred even more fraudulent activity, we've had recent litigation spurred by powerful government defense and health care contractors that have created legal loopholes that threaten the application of this very powerful tool.
This legislation that the Senate is just now passing overturns many of those court decisions, thus ensuring no fraud can go on unpunished by simply navigating those legal loopholes that those court decisions made possible.
I also wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about an amendment that we included that provides money for the Securities and Exchange Commission, which money I back up. I had a problem simply throwing money at an agency that hasn't had a very good track record.
So this amendment was held up until I got a commitment in writing from the SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro, who I think is intent upon doing a very good job there. I've had a lot of meetings with her that lead me to believe that, but I wanted some assurance that she would implement all of the recommendations from a report that Senator Specter and I prepared way back in August 2007 and we have that commitment.
So a few days ago, that commitment came in a letter, assuring me that all the recommendations from our report would be implemented in short order. These reforms are important and necessary to make sure that the Securities and Exchange Commission functions as it should.
This, in the end, is a good bill, touching many other facets of going after fraud, waste and abuse, and I hope that the House will act on it very quickly. It's time that we send a message to would-be bad actors that their conduct will have repercussions from here on out.
Thank you, Senator Leahy.
SEN. LEAHY: And the bill passed 92 to 4 and one of the reasons -- every piece of legislation I think I've ever written and passed has been a bipartisan piece of legislation, and again, I thank Senator Grassley on that.
I would also note my years on the Judiciary Committee, no new member has ever come to that committee as well prepared as Senator Kaufman. He should be. He basically ran the committee for years, and so, Senator Kaufman.
SEN. KAUFMAN: Thank you very much.
As a freshman Senator, I want to just say what a great honor and educational process for me to work with two of the real young pros in the Senate, Senator Leahy, Chairman Leahy and Senator Grassley. Its been great to watch them operate and I think what they've done on this bill is truly extraordinary, getting it through with high numbers.
I think it's a great day for the Senate. I think it's a great day for the Obama-Biden administration and I think it's a great day for the country.
I think this is something that's going to send a message to the folks that did bad things during the recent financial crisis, the FBI agents and the other people we need in order to enforce this law will be on the job and are going to go after them and they're going to get the people that committed these crimes.
It also sends a message to everybody in America that there's not two sets of laws. There's one set of laws for everyone. There's not a separate law for Wall Street or for complex financial plans and for everyone else that there is for the rest of the country. So this sends that very clear message.
And finally, as a taxpayer, you've got to feel good about a law that will return $15 for every dollar that we spend. So as I said, it's a great day for the country and I'm just proud to have been part of the process.
SEN. LEAHY: Thank you. Ninety-two to four is good. I hope the other body will now take it up quickly. I've talked with the White House and the president will sign the bill and I think he's eager to sign it because -- so much money of taxpayers' dollars, we want to make sure it's not stolen.
Any questions before we leave? Wow! We've got --
Q (Off mike.) Senator Specter --
SEN. LEAHY: He voted for the bill, too. Thanks, John.
SEN. GRASSLEY: -- (Inaudible) -- answering questions --
SEN. LEAHY: I know. I think out of fairness to Senator Grassley, go ahead.
Q (Off mike.)
SEN. LEAHY: Senator Schumer called me this morning to let me know -- he and I have been friends for -- it's going to be 40 years. We first met when we both young prosecutors. I was the state's attorney in Chittenden County in Vermont. He was the district attorney of Pennsylvania. We had worked together and met a prosecutors' meeting and kept in touch, he with me when I was running for the Senate and I with him.
So we have a particular friendship. He and my wife have often talked about cancer, both being cancer survivors. I don't mean to get too much into personal things, but it's a close personal relationship and he wanted me to know before it became in the press.
Frankly in talking with him, I got the impression that he went through much the same that Jim Jeffords did from Vermont and feeling that the Republican Party, a great party in this country had left him, not the other way around and he'd be more comfortable here. And I believe he will. I expect him to be just as independent as ever. In our caucus, we don't have any automatic votes for anything, but I've worked with Arlen -- ever since he came here, we've done numerous pieces of bipartisan legislation, just as Senator Grassley and I have, Senator Hatch and I have and I think having watched Jim Jeffords agonize about it.
I know from some of the things that Senator Specter said to me over the weeks, I know how hard he's agonized. I believe he's going to be happier.
Q (Off mike.) You got a call from Schumer -- (inaudible) --
SEN. LEAHY: No, I meant Specter, I'm sorry, I said a call from Senator Schumer, I got a call from Senator Specter earlier this morning and because of our long friendship, wanted me to know, so I kept quiet until he actually issued his own comment.
He talked with Senator McConnell and Senator Reid, but because of our long personal friendship, he wanted me to know about it and it was his cancer I was talking about, Marcelle's cancer.
Q (Off mike.)
SEN. LEAHY: It is not a surprise.
Q Why not? Not a surprise?
SEN. LEAHY: Well, just because I know him so well. I remember a conversation that Senator Stafford of Vermont told me about and it was right after Jim Jeffords had changed and I wanted to see as I usually did when I was in that (inaudible) dropped by to see Senator and Mrs. Stafford and he told me, the governor got a call from former President George Bush about the time just before Jim Jeffords' changed and the conversation was something like this, Bob, it's George, hi, George, how are you? I'm fine, Bob -- pleasantries about their families and he said, Bob, I hear that your Senator is thinking of switching parties, well, George, that's right. Bob, how do you feel about that? What do we do? He said, well, George, he was here to have breakfast with me today and I told him, I said, I think you're going to be a lot happier doing that.
Well, thank you, Senator. You're welcome, Mr. President. Good- bye.
We knew it in Vermont. We knew it, apparently, long before anybody down here -- it was well talked about, Phil Beruth here from Vermont, as he knows everybody was talking about it before it happened. And it wasn't a case, I mean, the Jeffords', the whole family, a long line of distinguished members of the Republican Party, but it was too much and he left.
Q Regarding Specter, what happens on the Judiciary --
Q Does this decision make it more likely that the -- (inaudible) -- is there a real problem?
SEN. LEAHY: Oh, I don't know. I don't know that. I would hope that we'd have a vote up or down and have a real debate, have a vote up or down. Democrats never filibustered any of the attorney general positions when President Bush was there purposely because, in fact, I don't think anybody in the 35 years that I've been here, anybody has filibustered a position for assistant attorney general. We vote up or down. We might vote against him. We vote up or down. So we'll see.
Q (Off mike.) Ranking Republican or at least until a few minutes ago --
SEN. LEAHY: That's a determination, and I'll let Senator Reid. I know it's going to happen, but I'll let Senator Reid speak to that and the caucus will confirm what Senator Reid is going to say.
Q When will he start caucusing?
SEN. LEAHY: You're asking questions that should be asked of Senator Reid.
Q What affect do you think this might have on issues in your committee such as judicial nominations and Supreme Court vacancies?
SEN. LEAHY: I think Arlen Specter is going to vote the way he will vote on -- independently on judicial nominations. He always has in the past, no matter who the president is and most of us feel, at least I do and I know he does that you give the president as much leeway as you can, but we have an advise and consent position and we'll take it.
The same with you, Ted?
SEN. KAUFMAN: Absolutely right. And I think the one thing as you know, Senator Specter started his career in politics as a Democrat in Philadelphia and then changed to Republican, so it's kind of like he's coming home.
SEN. LEAHY: Okay. Thank you. Thank you all very much.
SEN. KAUFMAN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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