Senate Proceeding on Sep 10th, 2009 :: 5:30:15 to 5:51:35
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5:30:15 to 5:51:35( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jeff Sessions

5:30:28 to 5:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: quorum call: mr. sessions: quorum call i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. sessions: mr. president, the nominee to be an administrator of the office of information and regulatory affairs, m before the body. he is, will be, if con part of the white house office

5:30:49 to 5:31:09( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: of management and budget, will have a number of reonsibilities. it's certainly a very significant position. is job has the responsibility of renewing all proposed by all the departments and agencies of the government and the regulations they issue are many. laws are passed if this

5:31:10 to 5:31:31( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: congress, sometimes in haste, leaving the details to the various agencies of our government: the department of defense, the department of homeland sec department of agriculture -- all the agencies. they have powers to effectuate the statutes passed by congress. they set forth the details of how it's

5:31:32 to 5:31:53( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: this are thousands of pages of regulations enacted every year. they are published in the federal register. no senator or congressman, to my knowledge, has of sat down and read the federal register. federal regulations have much the same force as law. indeed, people can go to jail for

5:31:54 to 5:32:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: regulations and do go to jail for federal regulations. some of this is, in fact, product of necessity federal government, you create a park and when there's a park open and people come in and liter o hours they can be punished,

5:32:15 to 5:32:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: arrested, and put if jail. often those regulations and the punishment are set forth through regulation and not through the statute that created the park to begin with. but it is importance. persons who produce these regulations are nameless and

5:32:42 to 5:33:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: faceless den many of the drug regulations enforced by the drug enforcement administration are based on regulations they pass, not what was actually required by the congress of the united major policy decisions

5:33:05 to 5:33:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: put forth in that and forth in that fashion including environmental regulations, health care regulations and reimbursement rules and hospital requirements and financial institutions can be done through regulations and through them. truly, there is a concern about

5:33:26 to 5:33:47( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the disconnect between democratic accountability we are known for in our this process of administrative regulations. during president reagan's time, i believe, congress passed a law that created this office: the administrator for the office of information

5:33:48 to 5:34:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the idea being to have another unelected bureaucrat -- and that's what this really is -- to be a central clearing house for all the propped regulations to question the lawfulness or cost of the thousands of regulations that promulgated.

5:34:09 to 5:34:29( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: it is an important position that can protect and at least somewhat ensure our constitutional liberties are not being eroded. enter mr. interesting and taking positions

5:34:30 to 5:34:52( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that those on the last of which he clearly is a and indisputedly a man of the left, however. possessing, in addition, and having taken quite a number of positionsome of which are

5:34:53 to 5:35:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: pretty shocking over the so i think it's not kind of person you would appoint to this kind of green eye shade position of somebody sitting down on a daily basis reading regulations and studying them and researching them to be a free spirit as our nominee is so i have concerned.

5:35:15 to 5:35:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: over the course of his career in action deemia, professor sunstein had clearly advocated a number of positions that are outside, well outside, the american mainstream while much of the criticism of his nomination, rightly,

5:35:37 to 5:35:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: on his animal rights advocacy where he, in effect, and plainly said, that he thought animals should be able to have lawyers appointed to defend their interests. these are controversial matters. but he has other legal writings that are controver

5:35:59 to 5:36:19( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and don't just deal with the question of animal rights. professor sunstein has taken, for example, a number of legal and public policy positions that are troubling. especially for an office that sits at the vo vortex of the regulatory engine of i would like to highlight a few

5:36:20 to 5:36:41( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: of those posions. in 2008 b improving decisions health, wealth, and happiness," professor sunstein advocates an approach for law based on economic and behavioral principles which he "libertarian paternalism," and

5:36:42 to 5:37:03( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the government can take "nudge" individuals toward making what he would say are better decisions. and at least what the government considers to be more desirable social behavior. professor sunstein argues that the government can achieve these goals while not being actively

5:37:04 to 5:37:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: or at least obviously coercive. his theory operates on the assumption that the average person is in his words "lazy, busy, impulsive, irrational and highly susceptible to predictable biases and errors." so the government needs to be a little paternalistic he suggests

5:37:26 to 5:37:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and take care of them andssue regulations and pass laws that keep them from doing things that some bureaucrat or some congressman thinks is not soblly desire. as professor sunstein argues, for too long the united states has been trapped in a debate between laissez faire types who believe markets will solve all

5:37:47 to 5:38:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: our problems and the command and control if there is a market failure then you need a mandate. the lays fair typthe lays fair types are right, the mandate types are right that

5:38:09 to 5:38:30( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: people are fallible and make mistakes and sometimes p who are specialists know better and can steer people in directions that make their lives better. that is what he has written. presumably in his specialists would "know better" than ordinary americans are

5:38:31 to 5:38:53( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: government bureaucrats. he seems to believe that americans are lazy and i think this is not a healthy view. so i question whether anyone who thinks the americans are fundamentally lazy can perform his role as a government regulation in the obama administration.

5:38:54 to 5:39:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: professor sunstein's approach is consistent with much of have seen from this administration i have to say which seems to believe that government control ca the business community, is generally preferable to free market policies. americans are not comfortable with this.

5:39:15 to 5:39:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: i have been out having town hall meetings and i know they are not comfortable. according to recent polling 52% of voter worry the government will do too much to "help" the economy. a poll believe that the financial bailouts were a bad idea.

5:39:37 to 5:39:57( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the masters of the thought it would be great, spend $800 billion, the largest expenditure in the history of the american republic and every penny going to the national debt because we were already in debt and we have borrowed every penny of it. we have had have little stimulative effect from that and the american people are right about that.

5:39:58 to 5:40:18( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: only 31% believe this stimulus bill has helped the economy. and we don't tell us how uncomfortable the american people are with the president's effort to overhaul health care so the american people ought to understand that if we c he will be the chief architect

5:40:19 to 5:40:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and gatekeeper over the regulations that this administration will be attempting to implement in a myriad of areas, not just health care and financial markets but agriculture, the environment, energy, a host of areas that impact the people of our

5:40:50 to 5:41:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: country. his should not be in this position. proffer sunstein is extremely aggressive position with respect to abortion. under his restricting access to abortion

5:41:15 to 5:41:35( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: "coa protection of fetuses," and this "selectivelyurn women's reproductive capacities into something for the use and control of in his view "abortion should be seen not as murder of the fetus but, instead, as a refusalo continue to permit one's body to

5:41:36 to 5:41:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: be used to provide assistance to failure to accept his view is simply a product of one's accepting the baseline of a woman as child barrier.

5:41:59 to 5:42:19( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the role of bearer is part of government's capacity to choose not to bear a child involuntarily." i think this is a disturbingly far-reaching and excessive view on this important issue of abortion. it fails to recognize in any way the moral aspect of this debate

5:42:20 to 5:42:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: which has divided american since the supreme court decision in roe v. his view is, really, a -- really mocks those who have a different view based on their

5:42:43 to 5:43:03( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and analysis of what that life is that is within the mother. what about the question affirmative action? we talked about that during the judge sonia sotomayor hearings and the firefighters' case. professor sunstein has taken an extreme view, i think, in these issues arguing that affirmative action programs "should generally not be thought to

5:43:04 to 5:43:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: raise a serious constitutional issue." in his view "the current distribution of benefits and burdens along racial lines is an discrimination o professor sunstein has returned to this theme repeat through. in

5:43:26 to 5:43:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: argued that existing law depends heavily on "existing distributions of wealth and power." specifically, he argued that the conservative objection to affirmative action namely that

5:43:47 to 5:44:08( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: discrimination r5rdless of the regardless of the pretext takes as a given existing distribution of wealth and power without considering the historical and legal context that led to those distributions. well, professor suchstein further argues that constitutional

5:44:09 to 5:44:32( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: clear ban on affirmative action. the constitution says everybody equal protection of the laws. when you advantage one person because of their race you disadvantage another person because of their race.

5:44:33 to 5:44:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: it's not a zero sum game. he goes on to say that -- quote -- "there is no clear moral argument that requires courts to treat affirmative action policies with great skepticism." close quote. in 1997 after the fifth circuit struck down

5:44:55 to 5:45:15( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: texas school of law's quota affirmative action admissions policy as a violation of the equal protection clause of the united states constitution, professor sunstein dubbed the fifth circuit decision in hotwood as hubristic and compared it to dred scott v. sanford stating -- quote -- "a court opinion

5:45:16 to 5:45:38( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: affirmative action is closely anal defective, abusive overreaching for the same reason. it would be an hubris." close quote. as we discussed in some detail during the recent nomination of judge sotomayor, court's jurisprudence in this

5:45:39 to 5:45:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: area requires any government discrimination -- and what happens when you have a quota -- that any discrimination by the governmt be subject to strict scrutiny of the courts, because on its face it seems to be unfair. now, we know

5:46:00 to 5:46:21( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: of long-term discrimination -- particularly against african-americans -- that courts have found that to remedy that it's perfectly all right to remedy this lack of equal protection by fixing that and imposing certain remedies

5:46:22 to 5:46:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that favor groups that have been remedial act. but when yo you're passed the remedial stage and you're in a stage of objectivity, as we have in most of america today, then if you favor one group or another, then the supreme court says

5:46:43 to 5:47:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: under strict scrutiny. we've the g.a.o. to be careful you're -- we've got to be careful you're not overreaching here and it seems that mr. sunstein has no -- for that philosophy. he seems to hold such discrimination is not only permissible but the strict

5:47:05 to 5:47:25( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: scrutiny standard announced in add regard did and and others cases is totally perfect. i question whether holds these views should be put in the positio ever decisions he'll be making as the regulation czar, some might say.

5:47:26 to 5:47:46( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: with regard to the nominations of federal judges, he's taken some positions, i think, that have been country -- unhealthy for the country. back in 2001, "the new york times" had was a very significant little article. it wasn't a big acialtion but it was very important -- it wasn't

5:47:47 to 5:48:07( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: a big article, but it was very imrtant and significant. it reported that professor sun diseen along with professor tribe and marsha greenberger, lawyers all, attended a private retreat where they democratic s block republi nominees by -- quote -- "change

5:48:08 to 5:48:31( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the ground rules." the title of the article by neil louis "wa r a judicial fig." and indeed they d i think the senate has been less healthy as a result of what they accomplished through the filibuster of judges on a routine basis. again, according to "the new

5:48:32 to 5:48:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: york times," it was reported that they argued at the meeting -- quote -- "that it was important forhe senate change the ground rules and therwhenthere was no longer an obligation to confirm stwun someone because they were scholarly or erudite." and tribe along with

5:48:55 to 5:49:15( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: ms. greenberg were before the judiciary comm at a hearing entitled "should ideology matter: judicial nominations for 2501." and they argued at that hearing thatolitical ideology of nominees is a legitimate issue for members to consider in that record.

5:49:16 to 5:49:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: i think that's been unhealthy thing and we've had a number of debates and hearings on it since and i believe my democratic colleagues to their credit, have sort of backed off from it. in other words, it's all right to dig deeply into a nominee's judicial philosophy and how --

5:49:37 to 5:49:57( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: were they committed to the law and how theyen vision the process of interpreting the consti but it' because you've got this political ideology or these views, that you can n chosen to be someone who can decide cases fairly. because most judges have some

5:49:58 to 5:50:20( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: personal views a they have to decide every case every day setting aside those personal views. at the hearing i thought he made an odd statement to me. he said that the current supreme court -- quote -- at all." close quote.

5:50:21 to 5:50:41( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: he believes that the people who have been generally reported to be activist or liberals were centrists and that presumably, i guess, the bad folks on the court were the judges who believe in forcing the law -- enforcing the law as written because of their personal views. indeed, he testified at that

5:50:42 to 5:51:02( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: hearing that -- quote -- "he can't think of a single nominee by president clinton to the lower courts who generally counts as a liberal." well, mr. sunstein has a lot of ability.

5:51:03 to 5:51:23( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: he has taken some animal rights that are clearly shocking and should not -- that are troubling in light of how important it is to have a person in this position who's got good judgment to render good decisions about the regulations that would impact every american

5:51:24 to 5:51:36( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: in this country. so i don't have anything personal against this nominee. he's got many friends. he's a very prolific writer and commentator.