Political Quotes

“Mr. President, because our minority views were not included in the Senate Judiciary Committee's report on S. 1103, I ask unanimous consent to have them printed in the Record. We hope these views will be of use to Members of the Senate if this legislation is considered on the Senate floor. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows. Minority Views of Senators Hatch, Sessions, Graham, Lee, and Coburn We fully support the President's request to extend FBI Director Mueller's time in office by two years, followed by a return to the previous practice of one ten-year term for each subsequent FBI Director. We also are committed to implementing this extension before Director Mueller's current ten-year term expires in August. The Senate must, however, pursue this extension in a constitutional manner. 1. Constitutional Concerns Senators Hatch, Cornyn, Graham, Lee, and Coburn have proposed a method of extending FBI Director Mueller's time in office in a way that is universally agreed to be constitutionally unimpeachable. In contrast, a prominent legal scholar has called into question the constitutionality of the method of appointment that S. 1103 proposes. Setting aside the question of our duty to ensure the constitutionality of all legislation approved by our chamber of Congress, the practical consequences of a court declaring void Director Mueller's extension could have widespread ramifications.…”