Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I thank you for the correction.

I appreciate my colleague's statement about his general support--I assume he meant for getting rid of secret holds, and he can correct me if I am wrong--his general support for changing this process and getting things done.

I will say that when we are in this time of economic challenge, no matter what the motives, I really do not care what is in the heads of my colleagues when they put on the holds. I do not even want to go there. What I care about is getting things done in the government when we have so many people unemployed, when we clearly have to move ahead and do more about small business and exports.

All I know is this: If we want to talk about the difference, at this point, 107 Obama nominees are on hold and being obstructed. At the same time--whether it was because not enough were nominated, I do not really care--at this same point, Bush nominees waiting for a vote--there were eight.

My bigger answer to this is, who cares about who did it or who did what when. What matters to me is that we move ahead and get going.

It is no surprise to me that the Senators who have taken the floor this morning and are surrounding me are Senators who want to see good government, Senators from open States with big blue skies, such as the State of New Mexico, Senator Udall, who is now the Presiding Officer; or my State, the State of Minnesota, which has always been a leader in open government in moving things ahead; or Senator Warner, who knows what it is like to manage a large State and knows you have to have your team in place if you want to get things done in the State of Virginia; or Senator McCaskill, who has been leading this effort from the Show-Me State, the State of Missouri--show me who is doing these holds.

The bigger issue is not just making sure we can run this government and getting the government moving and helping people again. The bigger issue for me is that things should not be done in secret. If you are going to put a hold on someone, we should know who and why you are doing it. I said the other day that this reminds me of an Olympic sport, a relay race, passing a baton from Senator to Senator so we cannot figure out who is holding the baton. They rotate who is putting on the holds, and they get around the rule. If delay were an Olympic sport, my colleagues would be getting a gold medal because there has been so much delay with these nominees, and it has to stop.

I want to give a few examples of the kinds of nominees we are talking about and the kinds of nominees we would like to see get confirmed. I want to give some examples of who these are, and I will then go through and make a request to confirm them.

We are right now in the middle of an oilspill of cataclysmic proportions in the gulf. I am going there this afternoon to see it. We are going to have a major hearing in our environmental committee on Tuesday. Do you know who is being held up right now? Michael Tillman, to be a member of the Marine Mammal Commission, is being held up; another guy, Daryl Boness, to be a member of the Marine Mammal Commission. Normally, one might not think this is the most important position in government. I say two things: One, we are dealing with marine issues right now, extreme marine issues of what is going to happen to our wildlife in the oceans. The second thing we are doing with this--why would anyone hold up members of the Marine Mammal Commission?

One guy I actually know--Mark Rosekind, to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. He does a good job. Like you, Mr. President, I am a member of the Commerce Committee. We know how important it is.

Earl Weener, to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. As we are dealing day-in and day-out with issues of threats to our transportation, the potential of airplanes that have gone down in the sky in the middle of Buffalo, and we have potential terrorist threats to our transportation system, what are we doing? We are holding up the nominees.

We have Toyota putting out cars that basically kill people across the country because the safety measures were not taken. They just paid the biggest fine in the history of this country. What are we doing? There are Members who are secretly holding up members of the National Transportation Safety Board. Why would we do that?

I will start with these.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 592, Mark Rosekind, and Calendar No. 787, Earl Weener, both to be members of the National Transportation Safety Board; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc, no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominees be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Again, this is a perfect example. We look at what happened with the Buffalo flight going down. We look at what happened with the Toyota cars. We look at what is going on across this country as we are focusing on terrorism and what happened in Times Square just recently. This is not the time to block nominees to the National Transportation Safety Board. Whatever the motives, whatever the reasons, at this point I do not care. I think the President should be able to have his team in place.

Next, I mentioned the Marine Mammal Commission, as we are dealing with an oilspill across the gulf.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 784, Michael F. Tillman, and Calendar No. 786, Daryl J. Boness, both to be members of the Marine Mammal Commission; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc, no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominees be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Very good. Again, marine mammals. We are dealing with animals that are almost certainly going to die because of this oilspill, and there are people on the other side of the aisle who have decided to block these nominations.

Next, Warren Miller, nominated to be the Director of the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management at the Department of Energy. I don't know the reasons this hold was put on, why he is held up, but I do not believe any person in this country believes we should have no person directing the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 404, the nomination of Warren Miller; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, no further motions be in order,
the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominee be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Next we go to Winslow Lorenzo Sargeant, to be Chief Counsel for Advocacy in the Small Business Administration. Mr. President, 64 percent of the jobs in this country are created by small businesses. Wall Street has been making record profits, but small businesses in this country are still suffering. Wall Street got a cold; Main Street got pneumonia. This is the time for a robust Small Business Administration.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 427, the nomination of Winslow Lorenzo Sargeant; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominee be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, the next one that is being held of these 107 nominations is Benjamin Tucker, to be Deputy Director for State, Local, and Tribal Affairs in the Office of National Drug Control Policy. As a former prosecutor--and I know you do, Mr. President, as a former attorney general--I understand the importance of having people in place to work on our national drug policy and to reduce the illegal drugs in this country.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 556, Benjamin Tucker; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominee be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. As a member of the Commerce Committee, again, I am very concerned that we still do not have a Deputy Administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration in place. As we know, there have been many recent incidents. We are trying to get the FAA reauthorization done to finally modernize our airports with NextGen so we can have the next generation of airport control, so we can better process our planes, so we can better land these planes, so we can have more safety, so we can have less congestion at our airports.

This is very difficult to do when you don't have in place all of your managers who are supposed to be managing the Federal Aviation Administration. We have had incidents in Minnesota of a plane that overran the airport and ended up in Wisconsin. We have had planes that have been sitting on the tarmac for 6 hours with passengers without food and water.

We have had all kinds of issues with aviation, and yet--and yet--my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, while supportive at times of these efforts to modernize our air traffic control system, are blocking the nomination of the deputy administrator for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 782, Michael Peter Huerta; that the nomination be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominee be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, another job here that is unfilled--one of the 107 relating to maritime issues, and again we are dealing with an incredibly sensitive and catastrophic issue with this oilspill in our oceans--the Administrator of the Maritime Administration is being held by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I don't know what the motives are. Maybe they do not like this person. We don't know who is holding this. All I know is that a President has to get his team in place when he is dealing with an issue as catastrophic as this BP oilspill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session for the purpose of consideration of Calendar No. 783, David Matsuda; that the nomination be confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, that no further motions be in order, the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and that any statements relating to the nominee be printed in the Record.

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I see the Presiding Officer has a smile on his face as he realizes I have reached the end of the nominees I am reporting on today. But I will tell you this: Having managed an office of 400 people--a government office, a local county attorney's office--I can't even imagine trying to run that place without having my top people in place and that kind of security.

It is very difficult to cut government spending, to make the kinds of decisions you need to make when you don't have your top team there to get the work done. Worse than that, with these secret holds, it is very hard to even understand why these people are being held, who is holding them. That is why we are working so hard to get rid of this.

As I said, this crop of Senators that has come here in the last 2 years does not like business as usual. We just want to get the business done.

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