E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 115 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 163 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017 No. 20—Part III House of Representatives The House was not in session today. Its next meeting will be held on Thursday, February 9, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. Senate WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017 (Legislative day of Monday, February 6, 2017) EXECUTIVE CALENDAR—Continued passed many of those bills with my col- it all the more disturbing to me that The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- leagues, colleagues whom I don’t just Senator WARREN would stand up, exer- ator from New Jersey. consider colleagues; frankly, I consider cising what is one of her specifically Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I rise them friends. constitutional, mandated duties and this evening to continue the dialogue But within that context, I have to was stopped because of a rule being en- of the conversation about the can- say I have watched when I sat in the forced that in my opinion, as well as didate, the nominee for Attorney Gen- Chair and had to listen many times Leader SCHUMER’s, is selectively en- eral. I rise to join my colleagues in op- when people said things that made me forced. But let’s go further into the position to the nomination. feel they were unfortunate. I watched fact that the contents of that letter, I witnessed earlier tonight something the President of the United States talk much of it shared, are actually sub- that greatly disappointed me. One of about his character and his motives in stantive and have bearing on the my colleagues, as was mentioned ear- ways that I thought were disparaging, thoughts and feelings of many people lier, stood up to read into the RECORD but amidst all of this, in my 3 years, I in the Senate. a letter, as we just saw, that has been have never seen someone stopped from I was raised by a family who made a part of the record of this body for speaking on the Senate floor when, as very clear to me something that I decades—to read that letter into the the Democratic leader said so clearly, think Elie Wiesel said: The opposite of RECORD. That was then stopped there could have been many other love is not hate, it is silence. It is a through the Chair because it was said times where that rule was used, and profound sin to witness injustice, to to impugn another sitting Senator. that is a frustration. see something wrong, and to simply be As CHUCK SCHUMER said, that is selec- But what makes it more of a frustra- a bystander, to not speak up. tive enforcement, but to me there is tion is the context in which it hap- What I respect about many of my col- that going on and a lot more. pened tonight. You see, Senator WAR- leagues, even those with whom I dis- I used to preside in the first months REN stood up and was speaking with a agree—and what I respect about Sen- I was in the U.S. Senate and sat and passion about this nomination. And in ator WARREN—is that they embody a listened to the speeches of many of my the midst of her speaking her truth, in tradition that I was taught by my par- colleagues. I have to say, I am proud to the midst of her speaking her heart, ents: to speak truth to power, to speak be a Member of the body, where folks she was stopped as she read something truth even if your legs are shaking, on both sides comport themselves with into the RECORD that had been there even if your voice quivers. Speak truth. a level of comity that is admirable. for decades. To me that is problematic Do not be a bystander. Do not sit in in- I heard some people tonight decry not just because it was a regular difference. Stand up and speak your the descending of this body into unfor- speech but because this had to do with truth. Do not let your soul be silenced. tunate places, but the reality is, my her constitutional duty of providing We are here as a country because at experience has been, on the whole, very advice and consent. She wasn’t just a time of rife moral injustice, people positive. The respect and the quoting someone, something that she didn’t remain silent. This idea of collegiality here is something that heard on the street, some hearsay. She speech in this country is so important makes this place incredibly valuable to was actually quoting Coretta Scott that it is enshrined in the Constitution work. Though the public might not see King, a civil rights hero, the wife of the that we should have freedom of speech, it, there are a lot of bills that get slain Martin Luther King, who we, as and, yes, it is not always comfortable worked on together and even get to the Americans in our Nation—we don’t to hear. floor, many of them get votes, many of have many of them—literally recognize I sat where the Presiding Officer, the them get passed. I am proud to have with a national holiday. So that makes Senator from Alaska, is sitting, and ∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. S873 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:18 Feb 09, 2017 Jkt 069060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 0637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G06FE6.255 S06FEPT3 SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with SENATE S874 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 8, 2017 there were many times I heard things what they believed in. This body was my heart. I was hurting because I knew that were uncomfortable, that I dis- designed to bring people of diverse ge- my dad would have wanted to see me agreed with, that I thought were ographies—thank God, eventually di- become a Senator. This guy who was wrong, but this body should respect the verse racial backgrounds, diverse gen- born poor in a segregated community idea of free speech. der—all together to represent our in the South, in the mountains of Tonight, I am proud of Senator WAR- States and to have it out. North Carolina, could never have imag- REN. She stood and told her truth. To No one Senator has supreme power. ined that one day his son would be see this body act as it did tonight is This is not the Executive branch. Both sworn in as a U.S. Senator. disappointing to me, and it is not a vio- sides have to want things. We have to My dad taught me lessons, as so lation of the ideals of comity. It is not. meet a 60-vote threshold on some occa- many of our fathers did. I learned I heard great conversations from peo- sions. That is the type of power we about hard work. I learned about sac- ple I revere. Senator HATCH spoke to- have here. rifice. Jane Baldwin said it best: Chil- night. He is a great man. I don’t agree When someone from here leaves this dren are never good at listening to with him all the time. I think some of position and moves to the executive their elders, but they never fail to imi- his ideas—I actually think sometimes branch and is heading an agency, they tate them. I thank God to this day that they are dangerous ideas, but I respect have tremendous power. In fact, the I had models to emulate. him. He and Teddy Kennedy—two men Attorney General is one of the most But if there is anything my father who argued with each other, sometimes powerful positions in America and ac- taught me, it is: Son, you didn’t get with voices raised in a lack of comity— tually even in some sense is inde- where you are on your own. That is in- had a love for each other. pendent of the Presidency. The idea of teresting for me to hear from a guy I was told by other senior Senators the Attorney General is that when the who, by every other measure, was a when I first arrived: Yeah, give it all President is wrong, the Attorney Gen- self-made man. To watch my dad go at you have got in debates. Argue and eral has a role and lets the President his craft, to watch him work and sac- fight, but understand that in the end know that, taking the appropriate ac- rifice on snow days in New Jersey, we are all people who love our country. tion. when I was a grade school kid, the first Nobody is questioning JEFF SESSIONS’ So while JEFF SESSIONS is a valued sound I would hear would be him shov- love of country. Nobody here is ques- colleague as a Senator, there is a moral eling the driveway because he was tioning his kindness and collegiality. I obligation that all of us have enshrined going to be the first person at work, no experienced that. I have spent 3 years in the Constitution of the advice and matter what. Often I would come home in the Senate. He is far senior to me, consent power to tell our truth because from school or go to my games and my and there is no time that we connected here our power as individuals is made dad wouldn’t be there because he was on the floor or in the Senate gym in manifest by our ability to develop coa- going to make sure to be the last one which he didn’t show me kindness and litions.