On the recordApril 22, 2010
I have to say--and I know some of my colleagues were here earlier. Before I came to this body, I spent a career as a CEO of a business and a CEO of a State. While I have great respect for this body and the rules and traditions of this body, something seems a little strange when 15 months into a new administration, this President can't get his nominees up for a straight up-or-down vote--put the management team in place. If there is a challenge or a problem with the qualifications of the gentleman the President proposes to be the head of the Corps of Engineers, we ought to debate that and vote him down, but he should not be held in this kind of gray secret hold or this area of abeyance. A number of my colleagues have spoken about this already. All of the freshman and sophomore Democratic Members--and I am sure we would welcome our Republican colleagues to do the same--are saying this process of putting people on hold, particularly seeking holds that have no relationship to their qualifications for the job, is wrong.
