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“ORDER OF PROCEDURE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S8551-S8552 on Aug. 1, 2001.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ORDER OF PROCEDURE
Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate considers the Boxer amendment--which will be immediately--
regarding arsenic, that there be 60 minutes for debate, with the time equally divided and controlled between Senators Boxer and Bond or their designees, with no second-degree amendments in order thereto, that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate, without intervening action or debate, proceed to vote in relation to the amendment.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, reserving the right to object, and I will not object, would the distinguished leader be willing to amend that to allow me to speak before that for 4 minutes on judicial nominations?
Mr. REID. I will be happy to amend that.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Madam President, the majority leader has asked me to announce to everyone that he wants to finish this bill tonight. We have exchanged lists with the minority. Hopefully, by the time we finish this next debate, we will be in a posture to lock in whatever amendments are in order and move forward on this bill.
As everyone knows, there are a lot of people interested in the Agriculture bill. That has been around for a day or two. So Senator Daschle wanted me to state that he wants to do everything he can to finish this bill tonight. We hope people will understand there will be some votes throughout the evening.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I thank the Senate for moving expeditiously on the Hutchinson nomination. I note that on Monday and Tuesday of this week the Judiciary Committee followed through on its confirmation hearing for Robert Mueller III, the President's nominee to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I mention this because this was the fifth confirmation hearing the Judiciary Committee held in July for judicial and executive branch nominees, which is pretty good because we were not allowed, under the reorganization, to have Members assigned to our committee until July 10.
In fact, I cannot think of any time in the last 6 years where the Judiciary Committee held five confirmation hearings in 3 weeks. Two of those hearings involved judicial nominees to the Courts of Appeals.
I appreciate the fact that the Senator from Montana, Mr. Baucus, noted that we held the hearing on the two district court nominees for Montana ``in a very expeditious fashion.'' It was gracious of Senator Hutchinson to offer his thanks for our scheduling the confirmation hearing of Asa Hutchinson to be head of the DEA ``so expeditiously'' after Senate reorganization. I appreciate William Riley, the nominee to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, thanking the Judiciary Committee for ``holding a prompt hearing.'' It was gratifying when Senator Cochran noted that he was ``very pleased with the dispatch'' with which we held a hearing on the nomination of Jim Ziglar to head the INS. And this week, Mr. Mueller thanked us for holding his hearing as quickly as we did.
With respect to executive branch nominees, considering the fact that the committee has only been able to hold hearings for 3 weeks, our work period has been outstanding. We held back-to-back days of hearings for the President's nominees to head the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Immigration and Naturalization Service 2 weeks ago, and 2 days of hearings on the nominee to head the FBI this week. In addition, we have held hearings on the Assistant Attorney General to head the Tax Division, the Assistant Attorney General to head the Office of Justice Programs, and the Director of the National Institute of Justice--all in July.
We would have done more if we had been allowed to do this, of course, during the month of June. So the Senate has considered and confirmed the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Civil Rights Division, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legislative Affairs, the Assistant Attorney General in charge of Policy Development, and other key officials within the Department of Justice, as well as the Commissioner of the INS and, today, the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
I hope we can move very quickly on the Director of the FBI.
We have not received the nomination yet for the No. 3 job at the Department of Justice, the Associate Attorney General. We have not yet received the nomination of someone to head the U.S. Marshals Service. Even though we are about to go into an August recess, we have not received a single nomination for any of the 94 U.S. marshals who serve in districts within our States. We have only received a handful of nominations for the 93 U.S. attorney positions that are in districts within our States.
So there is a lot to be done. And it will be done if we work together, and not if we have people come and give statements on the floor, or elsewhere, that are not factual because, unfortunately, as somebody once said, those pesky little facts get in the way. And these are the facts. There is no time, in the 25 years I have been in the Senate Judiciary Committee, that I have seen so many nominees move in a 3-week period in the middle of the year.
Madam President, I yield the floor.
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