Executive Nominations

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am proud to join my colleagues in the freshman and sophomore classes today to highlight a recurring problem in the Senate--the Republican holds on the confirmations of crucial executive branch nominees. These are not controversial people, as you will hear from what I am going to tell you from my part of the story today and what you have heard from some of my colleagues.

As a former prosecutor and the manager of a prosecutor's office of more than 400 people, I know from personal experience how important it is to have a strong leadership team in place. Only with a strong leadership team can an executive implement his or her vision. In our current economy, a vision for increased trade and export promotion is particularly important, and the President has one.

Earlier this year, he announced a plan, widely supported by CEOs of large and small corporations, to double American exports overseas in the next 5 years. Export promotion is a topic that is of special interest to me, as I chair the Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion.

I truly believe if we are to move this economy again, we have a world of opportunity out there. Ninety-five percent of the world's customers are outside of our borders. This is a different world with growing buying power in countries such as India and China, where instead of just importing goods we can be making stuff again; we can be sending it out so that customers in these other countries can be buying it.

Look at the numbers. A diversified base of customers helps a business weather the economic ups and downs. According to research, businesses that export grow 1.3 percent faster--and they are nearly 8.5 percent more likely to stay in business--than companies that don't export. These are the facts. So it is hard to believe, when we have a laser focus on the economy right now, when that is all I hear about from the people of my State, that my friends on the other side of the aisle are holding up the President's nominees for positions that promote American exports abroad. It makes absolutely no sense.

Right now, Republican holds are blocking votes on the confirmations of Michael Punke, nominated to be Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, and ``Isi'' Siddiqui, nominated to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator. These nominees have five decades of experience in international trade between the two of them, including extensive private sector and government work. They work with Democrats and they work with Republicans. They just want to get this economy moving again. But our friends on the other side of the aisle are placing holds on them at the very time when we all know this is the direction in which we need to move. These are exactly the type of people who could help expand American agricultural and small business exports and grow our economy.

These two nominees have been fully vetted and received strong bipartisan support in their Finance Committee hearings. They were recommended by the Finance Committee to the full Senate by a vote of 23 to 0--including the affirmative vote of the Senator who has since placed a hold on Mr. Punke. No one would believe this. The reason for the hold? The Senator in question wants Mr. Punke to commit to forcing Canada to repeal parts of an antismoking law passed by the Canadian Parliament.

So we have people in Rhode Island, in Illinois, in Minnesota, in New Hampshire who are looking for jobs, and they know that a key part of this is to increase exports to be able to sell our goods to other countries. Yet these guys are placing a hold on the very people who can get this work done because they are concerned about a law passed by the Canadian Parliament. It is too good to be true but, sadly, it is true.

Holding these nominees in limbo has dire consequences for our ability to promote American products abroad. Our international partners actually use the absence of Mr. Punke and Dr. Siddiqui as an excuse to stall progress on serious negotiations. You know what they say. They say: You don't have your guys in place. You don't have your people in place, so we are not negotiating with you, America.

Blocking these nominees gives cover to other nations that want to keep the United States from getting fair market access in the global trading system for American agriculture, manufacturing, and services.

A coalition of 42 food and agricultural groups wrote Senators REID and MCCONNELL in January to call for quick approval. They said: U.S. food and agricultural exports are under assault in many markets with trading partners erecting even more barriers in recent months. It has to stop.

In the United States, we further export promotion policy through a variety of different executive agencies, and Republicans aren't just holding up USTR reps, they are also holding up Eric Hirschhorn, the nominee to head up the Bureau of Industry and Security at the Commerce Department. This is the division at Commerce that screens exports to make sure national security, economic security, cyber-security, and homeland security standards are upheld when we export sensitive technologies.

The head of this bureau engages in strategic dialogues with high-level government officials from key transshipment countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates in order to prevent sensitive technologies from being diverted to China, Iran, and North Korea. Leaving this position unfilled sends a negative message to the domestic exporting community, to our allied governments, and it hurts our security. Why would we want to leave this position unfilled?

Mr. Hirschhorn has spent more than 30 years involved in issues related to export control. As an author of numerous articles and ``The Export Control and Embargo Handbook,'' which is widely recognized as the leading text on the issue, Hirschhorn displays an unparalleled understanding of the importance of export control systems and work.

These are a few examples of the pivotal positions being held up by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle. If you are going to talk the talk about moving this economy, about exports, about trade, about getting our goods out there, building things again, then you should walk the walk. You should not be holding up Siddiqui and Punke and Hirschhorn. These are noncontroversial people. Nobody watching C-SPAN has ever heard of them before. They are not in the middle of some controversial mess. They are trying to get our country moving again. That is what this is about. For people who are trying to get jobs, trying to move this country, they need people in place in the government to help them. Take those holds off, get this moving, put these people in place.

I yield the floor.

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