Volume 149, No. 138 covering the 1st Session of the 108th Congress (2003 - 2004) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“CONFIRMATION PROCESS” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S12308 on Oct. 2, 2003.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONFIRMATION PROCESS
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I understand Senator Dole is coming to the floor, and I just want to, until she gets here, say a few words about what happened at the Environment and Public Works Committee yesterday when the confirmation of Governor Leavitt of Utah was being considered.
I have the honor of serving on four committees in the Senate, including the Judiciary Committee, which, as we all know, has proven to be a particularly contentious committee, with the unprecedented filibuster of some of President Bush's most highly qualified nominees.
But yesterday, for the first time, we saw some of the politics of the Judiciary Committee, the obstructionism there, pervading the Environment and Public Works Committee, for the first time, when it came to considering and voting on the nomination of Governor Leavitt of Utah to serve as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Rather than have a debate, rather than have an honest debate, and then an up-or-down vote on this important nomination, what we saw was simply a boycott. Members of the committee on the other side of the aisle simply decided not to show up, making it impossible for us to achieve a quorum and impossible for us to vote on the confirmation of Governor Leavitt.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how those who claim to be pro-environment would simply obstruct the confirmation of a highly qualified nominee and leave the Environmental Protection Agency headless. Denying leadership to that large agency concerned with the protection of our environment and enforcement of our environmental laws and claiming to be pro-environment strikes me as inconsistent.
So I fear that as the primary season approaches for the Presidential race in 2004, what we are seeing again is the unfortunate intrusion of Presidential election politics into the work of the Senate.
Unfortunately, what that means is the people's work is not being done; the Environmental Protection Agency is denied the confirmation of a highly qualified nominee and is left leaderless. Certainly that cannot be pro-environment under any stretch of the imagination.
Some said there were 400 questions in writing that had been submitted to Governor Leavitt, which, in fact, he did his best to answer. But at least one Senator said: Well, I don't really care about the answers to the questions. I am going to vote to confirm him, but I want him to go through the exercise of answering those questions anyway so we can get him on record.
Well, the problem is that the nominee is somebody who has not yet served in that position. He is hobbled, to some extent, to be able to answer some of the questions that have been proposed. So he has to say: Well, if confirmed as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, I will do everything within my power to investigate this issue, and to get to the bottom of it, and to respond to your concern, Senator.
But, otherwise, he is left without the opportunity for an up-or-down vote, and the EPA is left without a head--hardly a place where we need to be. We would not be in that condition if it were not for Presidential election politics pervading yet another committee's work when it is concerned with the protection of our environment.
I know in the Judiciary Committee this morning we have another nominee of the President who we are going to take back up, Judge Charles Pickering. It remains to be seen whether Judge Pickering's name will be added to the growing list of those who are being denied an up-
or-down vote in this body because a minority of the Senate refuses to allow that up-or-down vote--an unprecedented act of obstruction and something which has not occurred before the obstruction of Miguel Estrada's nomination, that of Priscilla Owen, that of Bill Pryor. I hope that list is not further lengthened by adding the name of Charles Pickering.
Mr. President, with that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the time of the majority has expired; is that right?
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The time of the majority has expired.
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