On the recordFebruary 4, 2010
I rise, again, in opposition to the nomination of Patricia Smith to serve as the Solicitor of the Labor Department. As I noted on Monday, the Framers crafted a system of checks and balances to ensure that each government branch has a means to review the actions of other branches. In the Senate, one of those checks is our constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on executive branch nominations. The leader earlier talked about the amount of time it takes for cloture on people. It does take quite a while, but it is part of the process. I can tell you, when there is a hearing on a person, if there are 270 questions to start with and the other people in a similar position have a couple dozen questions, you know there is a little bit of a problem that could develop with that one person, depending on how they answer or don't answer the questions. This isn't something new. This isn't something that happened just this year.
