Bob Menendez: “I would rather have the President of the United States, with the interests of the American people, whatever President…”

“I would rather have the President of the United States, with the interests of the American people, whatever President that might be, be the appointing authority over an agency where the IG is not going to be beholden to the agency that appointed them. I think that is a much more compelling issue. As it relates to the time, the lapse of time, I would just simply say, well, first of all, if we do not have filibusters and have up-or-down votes on people, then we will not have much of a lapse in time in terms of having an IG come before the Senate for confirmation. I do not know why Senators would want to give up the right they would have under the bill to confirm inspectors general and make sure that person has a robust quality to them, the integrity and the background and the history to make sure they are going to go after this agency when it is appropriate to do so.”