Tom Harkin: “I wish to take the floor to talk about these critical nominations the Senate is currently considering. In all of the…”

“I wish to take the floor to talk about these critical nominations the Senate is currently considering. In all of the talk about these nominations, about the politics of recess appointments and everything, one thing that has been missing is a real consideration of who these people are. Let's bring it down to the personal. Who are these people? What have they done? What can they do to serve our country? We seem to have forgotten, in all this chaff that is out there and all the arguments going on, what we are supposed to be doing to fulfill our constitutional responsibility to advise and consent to Presidential nominations. As I understand it, we are supposed to look at the qualifications of the candidates, determine if they are fit to serve, and beyond that, that is it. The answer with all of the nominees before us is an unqualified yes. They are qualified, they are fit to serve, and the President should be allowed to put together his team. That should be the end of our task. We should confirm them all today--or tomorrow, I guess, when they come up--and move on to the many other important issues facing this body. I am going to talk in a little bit about the whole filibuster issue itself, but first I would like to talk a little bit about one of the first of the nominees who is up, and that is the President's choice to be our Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez.…”