Schumer Remarks on Senate Republicans’ Cabinet Confirmation Hearings
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today spoke on the Senate floor about his concerns over Republicans’ plans to jam through Trump’s cabinet nominees’ confirmation hearings. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. President, last week I expressed my sincere hope that the Majority Leader and I could come to some agreement on the process of nominations. He has negotiated in good faith and we have made some progress. I sincerely appreciate his willingness to work with me so far.
But I do want to clarify why Democrats are doing this. Yesterday, my friend the Majority Leader went on television and suggested that we were raising concerns about the nominations process out of pique or anger. He chalked up these QUOTE - “little procedural complaints” to “sour grapes” and suggested that Democrats “grow up.”
But we’re not doing this for sport. Democrats feel very strongly that pushing for a thorough and thoughtful vetting process is the right thing to do.
And here’s why.
The Democratic minority was and is concerned about the hearing schedule, which is so jammed right now that several high-importance hearings will fall on the same day, depriving Senators and the American people a chance to properly participate in the public vetting of these nominees.
Our caucus was and is concerned about the timely completion of the standard paperwork and ethics clearance for nominees before proceeding full-steam ahead with their confirmation hearings and votes.
Bear in mind President-elect Trump’s nominees pose particularly difficult ethics and conflict-of-interest challenges. They come from enormous wealth, many have vast holdings and stocks, and very few have experience in government, so they have not been appropriately vetted for something like a Cabinet post before.
What had be standard practice for the vast majority of nominees – the completion of a preliminary ethics review before their nomination – was skipped over for the vast majority of President-elect Trump’s nominees.
In fact, the independent Office of Government Ethics went so far as to send a letter warning that “their [the Republicans] schedule has created undue pressure on OGE’s staff and agency ethics officials to rush through these important reviews.”
“I am not aware,” wrote the Director Walter Schaub, “of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process.”
And the very same Majority Leader who suggested that Democrats were raising concerns out of pique or resentment, in fact raised the same concerns in 2009 as Minority Leader.
In 2009, then-Minority Leader McConnell sent then-Majority Leader Reid a letter laying out his list of pre-requisites for time agreements on the floor for President Obama’s nominees.
They are almost exactly what Democrats have requested.
Mr. President, I don’t bring this up to play “gotcha.” I’m doing it to show that our requests are eminently reasonable, and in fact have been shared by leaders of both parties.
I plan to return the exact same letter to my friend the Majority Leader with the same requests.
In 2009, the then-Minority Leader called these benchmarks “common sense standards” and “longstanding practices.”
I agree with him. These standards don’t indicate a lack of maturity (“grow up”), they show an abundance of common sense.
And I remind the majority that several if not most of the nominees have actually failed to meet the qualifications laid out by this letter given the hearing schedule.
Mr. President, the Majority Leader is fond of mentioning that many Obama nominees passed quickly in 2009. He asks that we do the same.
But there’s a big difference between 2009 and today. President Obama’s nominees all met the standards laid out in this letter. President-elect Trump’s nominees have not.
Back in 2009, EVERY Obama Cabinet Nominee had an ethics agreement in before their hearing. EVERY Obama Cabinet Nominee underwent a full FBI background check before the Senate considered their nomination.
President-elect Trump’s nominees are way behind that mark.
Mr. President, I only ask, respectfully, that the Republican majority follow the same set of standards they had in 2009 when the shoe was on the other foot.
Especially because these nominees raise particular concerns. The standards we’ve laid out – as leaders of both parties – address conflict-of-interest and security concerns. Those, of course, are prime concerns.
But there is another concern as well. These nominees have, even collectively, very little experience or record in government.
Many of them have taken positions quite different from the President-elect. They need to be thoroughly vetted, not just before the U.S. Senate, but before the American people. Jamming all the hearings in one or two days, making members run from committee to committee, makes no sense.
After all, they’re going to hold incredibly powerful positions for potentially the next four years. To spend an extra day or two on each nominee; even if it takes several weeks to get through them all in order to carefully consider their nominations…that’s well worth it.
It is only fair that they are given a thorough and thoughtful vetting and that they abide by the “longstanding” ethics practices that were established – and laid out quite clearly by the Majority Leader himself – to ensure Cabinet officials were in good standing to work on behalf of the American people.
Thank you, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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