On the recordJuly 31, 2012
I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I will be, under the general leave, inserting a couple of letters. One is from Frank Carlucci, former Secretary of Defense under President Reagan, who wrote us a letter saying: Leaving positions vacant indefinitely as appointees wait to be confirmed is not smart management and is frankly a threat to our national security. Also in support of this piece of legislation, a noted conservative Senator, former Senator Fred Thompson, took a position on this and said: I believe that this will result in an increasingly narrow pool of potential public servants who are more likely to be wealthy and already live in the Washington, D.C. area. That is if we don't pass this piece of legislation. He went on to say: In 1960, President Kennedy had 286 positions to fill in the ranks of Secretary, deputy secretary, under secretary, Assistant Secretary, and administrator; and by the end of the Clinton administration, there were 914 positions with these titles. As was noted by the gentleman from Texas, there is an argument to say a lot of these positions shouldn't even be in the Federal Government. But nevertheless, under the Constitution, the Constitution says under article II, section 2, the appointments clause--I'll cut right to the phrase I would like to refer to which is: Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper.…
