Brian Schatz: “this is a personal attack on a public servant, and it should be rejected. To be clear, Ann Carlson is legally authorized…”

“this is a personal attack on a public servant, and it should be rejected. To be clear, Ann Carlson is legally authorized to serve as the Acting Administrator of NHTSA under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. But what this amendment would do is set an alarming precedent in the Senate that, if you have a political or policy disagreement with a particular administration policy, you can take the public servant who is in charge of implementing it and take their salary hostage. And if the issue is that she hasn't been confirmed by the Senate, let's remember that in the last administration we had two different Acting Administrators working for months without being Senate confirmed, and it is no surprise that the ranking member of the Commerce Committee didn't object to them because he agreed with their policy. It is fine for you to disagree with fuel efficiency incentives. It is fine for you to never want to move on from the internal combustion engine and to oppose the electric vehicle revolution. That is fine. What is not OK is the U.S. Senate coming in and defunding a position of an Administrator with whom you disagree. And I want you all to think about this, Republicans. I want you all to think about this, Democrats. There will be times, as Claire McCaskill used to say, that ``the door swings both ways in Washington.'' So let's think very carefully about whether we want to set a precedent where the U.S. Senate defunds public servants with whom we disagree.…”