Government Executive - Authors - Sara Fritz

Gonzales approved by Senate Judiciary panel, Rice confirmed

Sara Fritz — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 -0500

The 10-8, party-line vote followed two hours of debate dominated by Democrats, each of whom argued at length that Gonzales cannot be trusted to hold his old friend, President Bush, accountable to the law.

"It's hard to be a straight shooter if you are a blind loyalist," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who noted Gonzales had been "unwilling to leave even a micron of space between himself and the president" during his confirmation hearings.

Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Penn., said Republican committee members, most of whom were silent during Wednesday's meeting, would take the opportunity to defend Gonzales in debate on the Senate floor.

Gonzales is expected to be confirmed without Democratic votes. He now joins the flow of Cabinet nominees heading to the Senate, which confirmed Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice on an 85-13 vote and Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson and HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt by voice votes. Additionally, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning unanimously recommended that Energy Secretary-designate Samuel Bodman be confirmed.

Senate Judiciary member Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, scolded Democrats for opposing Gonzales, who would become the first Latino attorney general.

"You may not agree with Judge Gonzales," he said, "but, my gosh, this man deserves to be confirmed. Every Hispanic in America is watching how this man is being treated."

In response, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he was moved by Gonzales' story of rising from humble beginnings to become the president's confidante. "We wish we could vote the story and not the nominee," he said. But Kennedy noted that while the nominee has condemned torture of prisoners captured in the war on terrorism, he waited until after he was nominated to the Cabinet to repudiate an August 2002, Justice Department memo allowing U.S. interrogators to apply pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death."

Democrats said they were forced to vote against Gonzales, even though many of them described him as a personal friend, because the administration's tolerance of torture had harmed America's reputation in the world and put captured U.S. soldiers at risk. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Gonzales made matters worse by stonewalling the committee during his testimony, refusing to explain his views on important legal issues. "His views are not clarified, but are even obfuscated more," she said.

Reading from the Constitution, Feinstein noted that Congress was invested by the founding fathers with the power to write the terms of war, and she suggested the committee should draft "a new law of war" that would clarify the United States' support for the Geneva Convention.

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Panel backs new Bureau of Indian Affairs unit to improve prisons

Sara Fritz — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0500

The bill (S. 2734) was adopted by a voice vote before a committee hearing on another subject. Retiring Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., said the measure was intended to implement recommendations of the inspector general of the Interior Department, who testified before the committee last September.

According to the inspector general, there were 11 fatalities, 236 attempted suicides and 631 escapes from Indian jails over the past three years as a result of the dismal conditions. He said the Indian detention program is "a national disgrace with many facilities having conditions comparable to those in third world countries."

To remedy the problem, the Senate bill would create a new Branch of Detention Services to oversee the prisons within the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Division of Law Enforcement. The new agency would be responsible strictly for detention, confinement and corrections within these facilities. It would have no law enforcement responsibilities.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs also would be required to keep records of all serious incidents within in the detention facilities. At present, according to the IG, many fatalities, suicides and escapes go unreported.

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Lawmakers rip idea of standing homeland security committee

Sara Fritz — Fri, 18 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0400

That was the message Thursday when six House committee chairmen and three ranking members appeared before the Rules Technology and the House Subcommittee to discuss the possibility of creating a permanent committee on homeland security.

In fact, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, went so far as to say he would fight the idea with his "dying breath."

His sentiments were echoed by Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla.; Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.; Agriculture Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member Charles Stenholm, D-Texas; Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, and ranking member John Dingell, D-Mich.; Small Business Chairman Don Manzullo, R-Ill.; and Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member James Oberstar, D-Minn.

Not surprisingly, the only witness who endorsed the idea during two days of hearings on the subject was Homeland Security Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., who heads the select committee that was created temporarily at the same time Congress established the new Homeland Security Department after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The other committee chairmen said Cox's panel should lapse when its official mandate runs out. Cox's committee will make a formal recommendation to the House by Sept. 30.

If a permanent Homeland Security Committee is created, said Young, it should be limited to oversight and concentrate only on terrorism. He said he did not want the Cox panel to meddle in the responsibilities of his committee, particularly regarding the Coast Guard.

Young alleged that Cox's committee staff is already engaged in "a creeping attempt to create something that shouldn't be created."

If the Homeland Security Committee is abolished, Barton and Young both volunteered that their committees would gladly take primary responsibility for homeland security.

Manzullo did not ask for more responsibility over homeland security, but he said he wanted expanded jurisdiction over government purchasing from small contractors.

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