Interim Appointment of United States Attorneys
Floor Speech
INTERIM APPOINTMENT OF UNITED STATES ATTORNEYS
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Ms. LINDA T. SÁNCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 580, a bill to revoke the Attorney General's unfettered authority to appoint U.S. Attorneys indefinitely.
This legislation would repeal a small provision, with enormous repercussions, that was placed into the USA PATRIOT Reauthorization Act conference report. The provision, which removed the 120-day limit for interim appointment of U.S. Attorneys, allows interim appointees to serve indefinitely and without Senate confirmation.
We now know that the provision was inserted into the conference report at the request of a Justice Department official. Clearly, the Justice Department's effort to insert this provision was just one part of the Bush administration's coordinated plan to purge U.S. Attorneys across the country for political reasons.
My suspicions about the role of this provision in the firing of at least eight U.S. Attorneys have been confirmed after reading the documents turned over by the Justice Department. We learned, for example, that in an e-mail to former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, former Attorney General Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson wrote: ``I strongly recommend that as a matter of administration policy we utilize the new statutory provisions that authorize the Attorney General to make U.S. Attorney appointments.''
The Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan entity, has completed a report finding that these firings are unprecedented. Prior to the forced resignation of eight U.S. Attorneys in recent months, and outside the normal turnover of U.S. Attorneys that occurs with a new administration, only 10 U.S. Attorneys were forced to resign in the last 25 years. The 10 U.S. Attorneys cited in the CRS report were all fired for cause, most under a cloud of scandal.
H.R. 580, legislation offered by my friend and colleague from California, Representative HOWARD BERMAN, provides the necessary legislative response to restore checks and balances in the U.S. Attorney appointment process by reinstating the 120-day limit on all interim appointments.
The bill also closes other potential loopholes through which Senate confirmation could be bypassed. It clarifies that section 546 of title 28 of the United States Code is the exclusive means of appointing interim U.S. Attorneys.
Additionally, the bill would apply retroactively to all U.S. Attorneys currently serving in an interim capacity. This would ensure that interim U.S. Attorneys appointed since the purge scheme was hatched are not permitted to serve indefinitely and without Senate confirmation.
At a legislative hearing on H.R. 580 before the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on March 6, this bill received strong support from the president of the National Association of Former U.S. Attorneys, as well as a former Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney. It is also important to note that the Attorney General himself has expressed that he is not opposed to rolling back this provision of the PATRIOT Act. And if the Attorney General's claim that he was not aware of the Justice Department efforts to quietly insert this provision are true, it would seem he never wanted the PATRIOT Act changes to the U.S. Attorney selection process in the first place.
Additionally, the corresponding bill in the Senate received strong bipartisan support and passed by an overwhelming margin of 94-2.
Mr. Speaker, we must begin to restore the independence of U.S. Attorneys across the country and return to the bedrock principle of our court system that justice must be served objectively and without fear or favor.
While the consideration of H.R. 580 will not end the Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigation of the U.S. Attorney purge scheme, the passage of this legislation is a critical step in this process to close the loophole in the PATRIOT Act that this administration has improperly exploited for political purposes.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
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