Prepared Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Mr. Chairman, today we will formally organize the Committee on the Judiciary for the 113th Congress. I want to join in welcoming two new members on the Republican side, Senators Cruz and Flake, as well as Senator Hirono on the Democratic side.
On the three nominees, we have requests to hold them over for another week. Their responses to written questions from the new members were received a few days ago.
Yesterday, we heard compelling testimony regarding gun violence and the legislative responses to combat it. I appreciate the Chairman calling this hearing to discuss the various legislative proposals to address gun violence. The hearing is a good starting point to discuss the many different causes of gun violence.
As I stated yesterday, this discussion is bigger and broader than just gun control legislation. This Committee has jurisdiction to discuss prison funding issues—one area where we heard testimony about yesterday—and we have addressed this issue in the past.
I have heard from sheriffs in my state that they have become the front lines for dealing with and detaining individuals with mental illness. I imagine others on this panel have heard similar stories from law enforcement in their state. As we develop future hearings on the topic of gun violence, we must include a discussion about mental illness, in addition to other possible causes such as video game violence and general civility.
I also want to discuss the President’s nomination of B. Todd Jones to be the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Chairman Leahy brought up his nomination during his opening statement yesterday, and President Obama included this nomination in the list of 23 Executive actions to take as part of his proposal to deal with gun violence.
Nominations are an important part of our work in this Committee and I take nominations seriously. Which is why it was disheartening to hear the Administration and the media blame Republicans for failing to move the nomination of Andrew Traver, the previous nominee to head the ATF.
The truth about the Traver nomination is that I took his nomination seriously. Mr. Traver was nominated by the President on January 5, 2011. My staff began conducting a review of his nomination packet that spring. In the summer of 2011, we noticed some information in his questionnaire that required further explanation and additional documentation.
My staff sent an email to the White House and the Department of Justice in 2011. I have a redacted copy of that email here, seeking this information. Unfortunately, neither the White House nor the Justice Department responded to my staff’s email.
So, those who say that Republicans stalled, delayed, or otherwise prevented this nomination from coming forward are flat wrong.
I take nominations seriously and Mr. Traver’s nomination was treated no differently. A hearing was never scheduled on his nomination so there was plenty of time for the Administration and Justice Department to provide the requested documents.
Mr. Traver was not re-nominated, but on January 16, President Obama nominated B. Todd Jones, the acting-head of ATF to the position. Just as with Mr. Traver’s nomination, my staff has begun to review his background.
As part of this review we’ll have a number of questions. Mr. Jones is known to this Committee as the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota. He was confirmed for that job and later moved to the ATF to be the acting-head of the agency. During his time he has not been without some controversy.
First, he has refused to make himself available for interviews with my staff and before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss Operation Fast & Furious. He also sent a video message to all ATF staff that many construed as a threat to whistleblowers in the ATF. His involvement in this matter must be examined as part of his background.
Further, his name recently arose as part of an ongoing investigation I am conducting with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and House Judiciary Committee regarding a quid pro quo exchange with the City of St. Paul, Minnesota.
As the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, he was aware of this arrangement and the details of how the agreement came to be. His emails are among the 1,200 documents that the Justice Department has refused to produce to the House and Senate as part of this investigation.
At a minimum, those documents are necessary for us to completely and thoroughly examine his background and fitness to lead an agency that is riddled with problems. I encourage the Chairman to ask the Justice Department to produce these documents as part of the nominee’s background.
This same investigation also involves Assistant Attorney General West and a pending nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
So, given that three nominees are tied to these documents, and because these documents are necessary to understand what role each of these individuals played in negotiating this arrangement that may have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, it is important that the Justice Department provides these documents as soon as possible.
It has been suggested that we move forward on these nominees in exchange for a commitment from the Department of Justice to work with us on the documents. With all due respect to the Department, I’ve been down that road before. When Mr. Cole’s nomination was on the floor, I was assured by the Department’s leadership that if we voted on Mr. Cole’s nomination, we would get cooperation on Fast and Furious. Based on that commitment, we voted on Mr. Cole’s nomination, and the cooperation dried up.
Another matter that must be thoroughly examined as part of Mr. Jones’ nomination is a new ATF operation in Milwaukee that just came to light two days ago.
On January 29, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article titled, “ATF’s Milwaukee Sting Operation Marred by Mistakes, Failures.” That article detailed an operation where the ATF lost “a military-style machine gun” and over $35,000 of merchandise in Wisconsin.
Today, I am sending a letter to ATF to get to the bottom of this latest controversy, which occurred under Mr. Jones’s leadership.
Mr. Chairman, you know I am more than willing to work constructively on nominations. I believe the ATF needs a Senate confirmed Director. However, if we are prohibited from asking questions about important matters that get to the core of leadership, character, and candor about a nominee’s ability to run an agency, it makes our job that much harder.
The Justice Department could start us on a path to move forward on these nominees by producing these 1,200 documents. To date, they have provided some access, but they have restricted that access to an in camera review at the Department. That requires staff and Members to travel to the Justice Department to view them. And it means, of course, that we are not able to use the documents in a public setting, and we are therefore not able to shine some light on what transpired.
Mr. Chairman, I urge the Justice Department to produce these documents to the Committee so we can continue to process Mr. Jones’ nomination as you discussed yesterday.
Thank you.