Political Quotes

“I come to the floor to oppose the nomination of Mr. Gordon Hartogensis to serve as Director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and, really, to express my continued frustration with the Republicans' efforts to weaponize the nomination process for partisan gain, including their unprecedented refusal to move Democratic nominees for important Agencies, like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board, in order to tilt them in favor of corporations, and including their continued attacks on women's healthcare and reproductive rights by stacking our courts with far-right judges. The Director of the PBGC is responsible for protecting the retirement security of almost 40 million people. We owe it to workers and retirees to make absolutely sure a nominee for this position has the relevant pension-related experience and knowledge to handle that challenge. One needs to have the determination to fight for workers and retirees and to have the willingness to work with Members on both sides of the aisle. When it comes to Mr. Hartogensis, I am simply not convinced that this is the case. It is unclear to me why he was nominated to replace Director Reeder, who is doing a commendable job, well before Director Reeder's term was completed. What makes this even worse is that the Senate HELP Committee didn't have a hearing at which members could question Mr. Hartogensis.…”