Kyl blocks Schumer....US Attorneys Purge

Congress : Senator Feinstein Delivers Speech on Senate Floor Highlighting the Recent History of U.S. Attorney Firings
Posted by Patriot on 2007/2/16 15:11:00 (14 reads)
Congress

February 15, 2007, Washington, DC –U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today delivered a speech on the Senate floor highlighting the recent history of U.S. Attorney firings and calling for passage of legislation that would require Senate confirmation of all U.S. Attorneys. This legislation was approved in Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

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The following is Senator Feinstein’s statement as delivered on the floor:

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from New York for holding the hearing in his subcommittee, for his leadership, for understanding what is at stake, and for being willing to be out in front on doing something about it.

What I want to do for the American public is lay out the history of this particular issue and place it in context.

Unbeknownst to any of us, in March 2006, in the PATRIOT Act reauthorization, a provision was included that allows the Attorney General to appoint an interim U.S. attorney for an indefinite period of time. You might ask, what is wrong with that? What is wrong is that it avoids Senate confirmation. Prior to this change, the law stated that the Attorney General could appoint interim U.S. attorneys but only for 120 days. After that time, the authority to appoint an interim U.S. attorney would fall to the district court. Why? Because that provided an incentive to the administration to present a U.S. attorney nominee to the Senate for hearing, for questions, for review, and for a vote on confirmation.

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