Statement
Of Sen. Patrick Leahy,
Chairman, Judiciary Committee,
100 Days: Senate Accomplishments So Far In The 110th Congress,
Senate Floor
April 12, 2007
Today we mark the 100th day of the
new Congress. While we have much more to do on behalf of the American
people, much has already been accomplished. We have heard the American
people’s call for accountability and competence in their government and have
started making those goals a reality. We have returned the focus to the
rights and interests of the American people.
Just as I have commended the Members of the
Judiciary Committee for their help and active participation in the work of
our Committee, I come to the Senate today to thank the Majority Leader and
those Senators who have been working so hard to restore balance to our
government, protect the liberties and rights of all Americans and revive
America’s leadership in the world.
First and foremost, we are making progress restoring the Senate and the
Congress to their proper constitutional role. From the FBI’s illegal and
improper use of National Security Letters to the politically motivated
dismissal of so many of the Nation’s U.S. Attorneys, there are concerns
about the competence and independence of the Department of Justice. This
pattern of abuse of authority and mismanagement causes me, and many others
on both sides of the aisle, to wonder whether the FBI and Department of
Justice have been faithful stewards of the great trust that the Congress and
American people have placed in them. We need to keep our Nation safe, while
respecting the privacy rights and civil liberties of all Americans. Last
year in the former Congress, the Administration sought expanded powers in
the PATRIOT Act reauthorization to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate
confirmation, and to more freely use National Security Letters. The
Administration got these powers, and they have badly bungled both.
The Judiciary Committee early oversight
efforts included our January 18 hearing with Attorney General Gonzales.
There we examined the change in course of this Administration, which had
engaged in warrantless wiretapping of Americans contrary to the law for
years. Under the watchful eye of the new Congress, the President’s program
for warrantless wiretaps on Americans has been revised and the government is
seeking approval for all such wiretaps from the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, as the law requires.
We must engage in all surveillance necessary
to prevent acts of terrorism, but we can and should do so in ways that
protect the basic rights of all Americans, including the right to privacy.
The issue has never been whether to monitor suspected terrorists but doing
it legally and with proper checks and balances to prevent abuses. The
Administration’s recent reversal of course and was a good first step.
Last month we held an oversight hearing with
FBI Director Mueller in which we called him to task for the longstanding FBI
abuses of national security letters. The Inspector General’s report we
insisted be provided included troubling findings of widespread illegal and
improper use of National Security Letters to obtain Americans’ phone,
financial, credit and other records. Inspector General Glenn Fine testified
that there could be thousands of additional violations among the tens of
thousands of National Security Letters that the FBI is now using each year.
The Inspector General also found widespread use by the FBI of so-called
“exigent letters.” These letters, which are not authorized by any statute,
were issued at least 739 times to obtain Americans’ phone records when there
was often no emergency and never a follow-up subpoena, as the FBI had
promised. Despite these extensive abuses, the top leadership at the FBI sat
idly by for years, doing nothing to stop this practice.
We questioned the FBI Director about these
matters and reports that the FBI has repeatedly submitted inaccurate
information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in its efforts to
obtain secret warrants in terrorism and espionage cases -- severely
undermining the Government’s credibility in the eyes of the Chief Judge of
that Court. These abuses are unacceptable. Director Mueller now knows that
and knows that these abuses and violations can no longer be continued or
repeated.
The Judiciary Committee is now in the midst of
an investigation in which we are uncovering an abuse of power that threatens
the independence of U.S. Attorneys offices around the country and that
undermines the trust and confidence of all Americans in federal law
enforcement. We are examining the mass firings of U.S. Attorneys and are
trying to get to the truth in order to prevent these kinds of abuses from
happening again.
I want the American people to have a Justice
Department and United States Attorneys offices that enforce the law without
regard to political influence and partisanship. I want the American people
to have confidence in federal law enforcement and I want our federal law
enforcement officers to have the independence they need to be effective and
merit the trust of the American people.
Sadly, what we have heard from the Administration has been a series of
shifting explanations and excuses and a lack of accountability or
acknowledgement of the seriousness of this matter. The women and men
replaced and whose reputations were then stained by those seeking to justify
these firings as “performance related” were appointees of President Bush.
Several had significant achievements in office and glowing performance
reviews.
As we learn more details about the ousters of
these U.S. Attorneys the story grows more troubling. Had we accepted the
initial testimony of the Attorney General and other Department officials we
would not have gotten to the truth. The White House and the Attorney
General have dodged Congress’s questions and ducked real accountability for
years. In the past they counted on a rubberstamping Congress to avoid
accountability. The American people have a new Congress, one that looks for
answers.
The Attorney General has admitted “mistakes were made” without specifying
what they were. He will have another chance to tell the whole truth next
Tuesday at our next Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. The days when he
could come by once a year and not answer questions are over.
I made no secret during his confirmation
hearing of my concern whether Mr. Gonzales could serve as an independent
Attorney General of the United States on behalf of the American people and
leave behind his role as counselor to President Bush. The Department of
Justice should serve the American people by making sure the law is enforced
without fear or favor. It should not be turned into a political arm of the
White House.
For years preceding this new Congress, accountability has been lacking in
this Administration. Loyalty to the President has been rewarded over all
else. That lack of accountability, and lack of the checks and balances that
fostered it, must end and, I hope, has ended.
We do not need another commendation for the
“heckuva job” done by those who have failed in their essential duties to the
American people. True accountability means being forthcoming, and it means
there are consequences for improper actions.
The White House continues to stand by the
firings of the U.S. attorneys and despite assurances by the President that
we would receive cooperation, documents and access to witnesses, the White
House has yet to produce a single document or make any witnesses available.
Now we are learning that the “off book”
communications they were having about these actions, by using Republican
political email addresses, have not been preserved. Like the famous
18-minute gap in the Nixon White House tapes, it appears likely that key
documentation has been erased or misplaced. This sounds like the
Administration’s version of the dog ate my homework. I am deeply disturbed
that just when this Administration is finally subjected to meaningful
oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information. This Administration
has worn out the benefit of the doubt and undermined whatever credibility it
had left. The American people are right that they are entitled to full and
honest public testimony of the White House staff responsible for this
debacle.
We have asked for Administration officials and now former officials to
cooperate with the Judiciary Committee in its inquiry and I hope that they
will. Through the Committee’s oversight work so far, we know some of the
answers to some of the questions we have been asking, and the answers are
troubling. We have learned that most of the U.S. Attorneys that were asked
to resign were doing their jobs well and were fired for not bending to the
political will of some in Washington. Apparently, their reward for their
efforts at rooting out serious public corruption is a kick out the door.
Along with these oversight matters the
Judiciary Committee has taken up questions relating to the war in Iraq and
congressional authority to condition funding, the plight of Iraqi refugees,
the recommendation of the Iraq Study Group on policing and the
administration of justice in Iraq, and contracting fraud and abuse in Iraq.
We have examined enforcement of our antitrust laws, restoring open
government by reinvigorating the Freedom of Information Act, ending
antitrust immunity for insurers, increasing drug competition, strengthening
protections against identity theft and providing for fair and comprehensive
immigration reform.
We have also moved legislative initiatives.
Indeed, I think the first legislation passed by the Senate this year was our
bill to restore the cost of living adjustment for federal judges. We have
passed a bill to amend the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act to honor
the contribution of Cesar Chavez and other outstanding Americans. We passed
by a bipartisan vote of 94 to 2 a bill to repeal that part of the PATRIOT
Act reauthorization that had contributed to the U.S. attorney firings and
thereby moved decisively to repeal the Attorney General’s unlimited
authority to appoint so-called interim U.S. Attorneys without Senate
consideration. At long last, we have given final passage to the bill
against animal fighting that has languished for so many years. And we have
passed the Genocide Accountability Act, the first legislative result of the
new subcommittee I worked with Senator Durbin to create within the Judiciary
Committee on Human Rights and the Law.
I hope that the Senate will soon be
considering a number of our other legislative initiatives. We have reported
a court security bill, S.378; a bill to increase drug competition by giving
the FTC authority to stop drug companies from paying other companies not to
compete, S.316; a bill to establish a school loan program for those willing
to serve as prosecutors and public defenders, S.442; and legislation to
reauthorize the successful Byrne grant program for law enforcement, S.231.
A number of additional items are not far behind, including a bill to
reauthorize the COPS program, S.368; and a bill that Senators Sessions and
Senator Landrieu cosponsored attacking fraud in disaster and emergency
relief funding. I hope to see action on our bill against war profiteering,
S.119, as well.
The new Congress is off to a strong start in
restoring accountability, in revitalizing the checks and balances of our
system, and in earning back the public’s trust in government that has eroded
during a rubberstamp Congress. Much remains to be done but we have made
meaningful progress in just 100 days.
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