Senate Proceeding on Oct 6th, 2009 :: 1:24:35 to 1:47:00
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1:24:35 to 1:47:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jeff Sessions

1:24:37 to 1:24:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. we're in a quorum call. mr. sessions: i would ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presidg officer: without objection. mr. sessions: i'd like to address the nomination of thomas perez to be assistant attorney general for civil rights division at the department of justice.

1:25:00 to 1:25:23( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that is an important position, and it requires somewhat of a built-in experience and fairness. i think that president obama, like all the presidents, are entitled to some deference in selecting executive branch nominees such as this one, and i had c

1:25:24 to 1:25:45( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: would not be able to support this nominee. i nomination be delayed unless there is some additional matters that need to be looked at of which i'm not aware at this time, so i was prepared to vote up or down. i know we may only have one vote, and that is the question

1:25:46 to 1:26:07( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: of cloture on whether to bring this nomination up for an up or down vote. so i guess i'm at a point where i don't feel comfortable voting either way on that if we don't have any other votes, so i will wrestle with that decision. but the civil rights division of the department of justice is charged with protecting

1:26:08 to 1:26:28( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: civil rights of all americans. it's an important division. as such, it's capitol hill that the division be free from partisanship and not be used as a tool to further an agenda of one group or another, one ideology or another.

1:26:29 to 1:26:51( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the president has chosen this nominee, someone who has a record of and a reputation very strong political activity. that's not disqualifying, it's a matter i'm concerned about because i'm concerned about this division. in reviewing mr. perez' statements and his record, i am

1:26:52 to 1:27:13( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: concerned that -- whether or not he is capable of putting aside partisan beliefs and whether he is head the civil rights division of the united states department of justice. over the past several months, news reports concerns that decisionmaking at the department and the civil

1:27:14 to 1:27:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: rights division in particular have been not on protecting civil rights. i hate to say that, but i think our real objections have been raised. in voluntarily

1:27:35 to 1:28:00( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: that it had won against the new black panther party. during the last election, two of that group's members had dressed in military-style uniforms and intimidated voters at the polling place. and outsi of philadelphia, a voting place. long-time civil rig

1:28:02 to 1:28:23( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: who was there and who saw it, barto bull, called it, "an outrageous affront to democracy and the rights of voters to participate in an election without fear." on july 30, "the washington times" reported that a political appointee, thomas forelli, the assistant attorney general of the department of justice and

1:28:24 to 1:28:44( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: third in charge of that great department, approved the decision to suddenly reverse course and drop many people have seen the video of that utterly unacceptable

1:28:45 to 1:29:05( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: activity by the new black panther party. mr. forelli's decision to allow this voter intimidation to go unprosecuted stands in stark contrast to his statements made duri when he stated, quote -- "i agree that both civil and criminal laws governing the

1:29:06 to 1:29:27( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: conduct of elections should be enforced." well, of course, that's fundamental. in may, members of the house judiciary committee sought an explanation from the department. they had taken a judgment in the case. senior career prosecutors had against this group, and the ques

1:29:28 to 1:29:49( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: began a discussion of giving it away, setting it aside, a judgment they had already taken. eventually, that's what the department through some maneuvers that i don't think are consistent with the normal processes of justice. they found one group within the department whose responsibility

1:29:50 to 1:30:10( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: did not include making these kind of decisions. they made a decision it was ok to set aside the judgment against them, a civil judgment, i think, that and it just wasn't good. it's just not good. so they demanded a house judiciary committee, our colleagues, an explanation.

1:30:11 to 1:30:32( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the administration's responses were in addition, the independent united states commission on civil rights has the justice department explain the dismissal of that lawsuit, but the administration rebuffed the request, claiming that the

1:30:33 to 1:30:53( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: department decided that -- to through its office of professional responsibility. so the departmentf justice claimed it cannot provide information to anyone on the outside until that internal investigation is complete. based on the lack of document production and lack of answers

1:30:54 to 1:31:14( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: from the department of justice on september 30, the civil rights commission chairman, gerald reynolds, wrote to attorney general holder, repeating his request for information on previous voter intimidation investigations so the commission could determine whether the department's

1:31:15 to 1:31:39( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: reversal of course in this case constituted a change in policy and what the implications of this would be. chairman reynolds also pointed out that, quote -- "many aspects of the commission's inquiry have no connection with the matters subject to the o.p.r. jurisdiction.

1:31:40 to 1:32:01( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: "and that if the department were nonresponsive, the commission would be forced to propound interrogatories and interview requests directly on effective justice department personnel. so even the independent commission on civil rights is concerned about this. if you care about voting rights, how did this dismiss a case on video of one of the most blatant

1:32:02 to 1:32:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: intimidations you can imagine at a polling place. so serious questions have arisen. was this dismissal of the case a blatant partisan political move by the departmt of justice? was this black panther group protected because they were on

1:32:23 to 1:32:45( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the right side of political races? if so, they're -- it implicates serious dangers for voter intimidation prosecutions in the future, i would suggest. so before we vote to approve mr. perez as head of the office of civil rights, the senate

1:32:46 to 1:33:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: needs to know how he will conduct the office. unfortunately, this kind of issue is only one of the important issues that he will be facing. in june, it became apparent that the department would work against commonsense managers by states to assure tha only

1:33:07 to 1:33:28( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: citizens would be allowed to vote in elections. the supreme court has held that states can pass and enforce voter identification laws to protect the integrity o elections. yet acorrponding to the associated press, the civil rights division under attorney general holder has -- quote -- -- "rejected georgia's system of

1:33:29 to 1:33:50( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: using social security numbers and driver's license data to check mr. prospective voters on citizens." rather than working alongside the state of georgia to ensure that only citizens are allowed to vote, which would be a good goal and role for the department of justice, the department has worked to ensure that the system remains broken. as the georgia secretary of

1:33:51 to 1:34:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: state has observed -- quote -- " "the department of justice has thrown open the door for activist organizations, such as acorn, to register known noncitizens to vote in georgia elections and the state has no ability to verify an applicant's citizenship status or whether

1:34:13 to 1:34:33( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the individual even exists. the department of justice completely disregarded georgia's obvious and direct interest in preventing noncitizens from voting. clearly politics took priority over common sense and good public policy, closed quote, the georgia sesd of state sa -- georgia

1:34:34 to 1:34:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: secretary of state said. now, that's a serious rnlg charge. so this is very troubling. there seems to be a view by some the bertie leksz are. are -- the better elections are. that voting in itself is good

1:34:55 to 1:35:16( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: and we should just want more and more people to vote. and, of course, we want all eligible people to vote. and it seems to be implit in this argument that it matters little if the people who vote are illegal or the votes cast are fraudulent votes.

1:35:17 to 1:35:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: but i would contend, i think without much dispute, that it is just as damaging to a fair election to allow someone to vote who's not eligible or someone to vote twice fraudulently or someone to vote for someone who didn't show up on election day and slip the ballot box and

1:35:38 to 1:35:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: jones" and vote for that person that. does just as much damage -- that does just as much damage as denied the right to vote in the actual outcome of the election. and i would be the first to acknowledge that in our past, we

1:36:00 to 1:36:20( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: have, and particularly in the south, had blatant examples before the voting rights act predominantly, when people were blatantly denied the right to vote. and it was a stain on our election process and a stain on

1:36:21 to 1:36:42( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: the integrity of that process. but this is a time that we need to be working together to make sure that every vote is honest and fair and not fraudulent. another example of apparent rights division occurred in missouri, where the department

1:36:43 to 1:37:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: has quietly refused t an existing, ongoing lawsuit that was brought under the national voter registration act. that lawsuit was brought four years ago to enforce a provision that required states to clean up their registration lists to prevent voter fraud. according to common tator hans

1:37:07 to 1:37:29( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: von spikowski -- quote -- "when the suit was filed in 2005, one-third of the countries had more registered voters than voting age residents. one county's list was 153% of the census count, and the state had done virtually nothing to clean up its rolls.

1:37:30 to 1:37:51( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: well, fast forward to march. there remains no evidence that the voter registration rolls in most missouri counties have -- i'm still in quote. i want to be sure -- this is

1:37:52 to 1:38:13( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: still the quote of mr. von skowski -- this individual, this commentator. let me get him name. spikowski. "there remains no evidence that the voter registration rolls in most missouri counties have been purged of their thousands of nonresidents and decedents. registration numbers from the november elections show there is still more than a dozen missouri

1:38:14 to 1:38:35( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: counties with more registered voters than voting-age residents residents." yet rath than continuing the lawsuit to ensure that missouri cleans up its vot registration rolls, the department of justice refused to pursue the case,

1:38:36 to 1:38:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: dropped it, a distressing sign to me that it does not take the integrity in the voting process serious, certainly not serious enough. is the department of justice committed to integrity in the process or just allowing anybody that wants to walk in and vote

1:39:05 to 1:39:27( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: to vote? of course, these decisions have been made by the civil rights division before mr. perez has been confirmed. that is certainly true. and he does not have any culpability in these actions, but

1:39:28 to 1:39:49( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: my -- by -- of mine about is he committed to fixing it, will he correct these kind of decisions, is he committed to fairness, regardless of political impact in an election. there are important rules in voting. those rules must be followed. will they reinstate the case in philadelphia where there was a

1:39:50 to 1:40:10( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: clear evidence of intimidation and threats against voters? will he correct the course that the civil rights division has taken in undermining commonsense voter identification laws? will he reinstate -- reinstitute national voter registration act lawsuits to ensure clean up their voter rolls to

1:40:11 to 1:40:31( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: prevent voter fraud? the way this happens is a large number of name on a voter roll at a voting if you don't have identification identification -- if you don't

1:40:32 to 1:40:52( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: have -- require the voter to produce any person can walk in there and say, john jones -- i'm john jones. okay, you get to vote. and he votes. he goes to the next voting place. he knows somebody's name's on the list that's not alive or n vote that day, and he says, "i'm

1:40:53 to 1:41:16( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: ralph smith," and he signs and goes in and votes again. and again and again. and people have been known to travel all over multiple precincts casting votes in names of the persons not their own name. and it's a -- it's fraudulent. it demeans the integrity of the entire election process just as much as if the person had wrongly been allowed to --

1:41:17 to 1:41:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: denied the right to vote. so we'll have to concerned where mr. perez will be in this. he's been pretty active. when he ran for the montgomery county, maryland, country council, he responded to a survey question asking, "what would you like the voters to

1:41:38 to 1:41:58( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: know about you?" mr. perez said, "i'm a progressive democrat and i always was and always will be." well, it's a free country and it's all right. i'm just -- just saying i'm -- i'm a little nervous. as a counselor, mr. perez expressed disdain for republicans, at one point

1:41:59 to 1:42:20( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: giving, according to the report -- quote -- "a five-minute speech about how some conservative republicans do not care about the poor." on april 3, 2005, "washington post" article, mr. perez was described as -- quote -- "about as liberal as democrats get." i'm also concerned that

1:42:21 to 1:42:45( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: mr. perez will not to fully enforcing our nation's immigration laws, something i've worked hard on. we need to create a lawful system of we cannot continue in this lawless method that we are, and one of the first things you do to reduce the illegal immigration is you stop

1:42:46 to 1:43:06( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: rewarding people who violate our laws to come here. so he previously served as president of the board of casa de maryland, an immigrant advocacy organizationhat has taken some extreme views and been criticized by a number of people in the media.

1:43:07 to 1:43:27( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: casa de maryland issued a pamphlet instructing immigrants confronted by police to remain silent. casa sites. this is where people, often without lawful status, come and seek work. and opposes restrictions on illegal immigrants receiving driver's licenses.

1:43:28 to 1:43:51( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: he's chairman of that board. mr. perez himself has spoken in favor of measures that would assist skirting u.s. immigration laws. for example, as a councilman in 2003, mr. perez supported ma tric issued by mexico and guatemala

1:43:52 to 1:44:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: as a valid form of local residents who worked and use servic without having any u.s.-issued documents to prove their identity. of course, after a good bit of examination and public discussion, those metricular cards were shown to be

1:44:13 to 1:44:34( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: unreliable, un -- and that's an unworkable way legal status of someone. but he was a defender of the metricular cards, which i think is troubling in the position he will be seeking to assume. he also supported a bill granting in-state tuition rates

1:44:35 to 1:44:59( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: to illegal immigrants in maryland. stated -- quote -- "we have a legal obligation to make the same commitment to hundreds of immigrant high school students who have made maryland their home we don't have a to give people illegally in the country t

1:45:00 to 1:45:22( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: not c out-of-state tuition. while mr. perez has taken these positions while acting in a political capacity, and there is a distinction between that and political advocacy, being the justice civil rights division, i do think it's reasonable for us to be concerned about whether he will use the department of

1:45:23 to 1:45:43( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: justice resources to advance his ideas and an age co ideals of civil rights, i think. i don't believe lawful -- the -- establishing lawful rules of

1:45:44 to 1:46:04( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: immigration or lawful rules of voting are unfai and are contrary to civil rights. indeed, they are the cornerstone, the law is, of civil rights in a true sense. so i am concerned, and we're going to be watching, to ensure that the civil rights division

1:46:05 to 1:46:26( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: not be politicized. it must work to protect t rights of all americans regardless of their political party, their race or background given the very politic decisions being -- apparently being made now in the department of justice i think it takes someone committed to rising

1:46:27 to 1:46:47( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: above this kind of activity and right this i've talked with him. i enjoyed that conversation. i -- iertainly have no ill will toward mr. perez personally but i've got t say it's important that we have honesty in voting. i think it's important that we

1:46:48 to 1:47:01( Edit History Discussion )

Jeff Sessions: have a legal system that works with regard to immigration. and i'm at this point not convinced that mr. perez has demonstrated that he has the will to do those things, and that's what troubles me about