On the recordJanuary 12, 2017
As a senior member of the House Committees on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee; Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, and the Congressional Voting Rights Caucus, I rise today to express my views regarding the more troubling nominations made by the President-Elect to fill the important Cabinet posts at the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Energy. Let me begin with the nomination of U.S. Senator Jefferson Beauregard ``Jeff'' Sessions III of Alabama to be the next Attorney General of the United States. Mr. Speaker, those of us who oppose the nomination of Senator Sessions to be Attorney General owe a responsibility to the public to clear and forthright in stating the reasons they believe he should not be confirmed as the Attorney General of the United States. Many of the senator's supporters, ranging from his Republican colleagues in the Senate to current and former staffers to home state friends and constituents, praise the senator for his modesty and courtesy and manners. The four-term senator and former state and federal prosecutor is, we are told, learned in the law, a person of deep faith, a good man who loves his family, his state, and his country. We can, as the lawyers say, stipulate that these assertions are true. But that does not make him an appropriate and deserving candidate to be Attorney General of the United States.…
