AFJ: Tom Perez will be an outstanding Secretary of Labor

Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron released the following statement today in response to the Senate vote to confirm Tom Perez as Secretary of Labor: 

The new Secretary of Labor:
Tom Perez

We are pleased that the Senate voted to confirm President Obama’s choice to run the Department of Labor. Tom Perez will be an outstanding Secretary of Labor.  He has spent his professional career in public service, committed to ensuring a fairer and more just society.  His confirmation is an important step in the fight for the preservation of the fundamental  rights of working Americans.

This must be only the beginning.  The Senate also should confirm the President's nominees for the National Labor Relations Board and the Environmental Protection Agency.  And it must move swiftly to confirm the president's nominees for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and all federal courts.

Read our previous statements on Tom Perez 

AFJ: Reported agreement on Obama nominees "an important step forward"

               Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron released the following statement today in response to media reports of an agreement concerning seven of President Obama’s executive branch nominations:

                The agreement, as described in media accounts, is an important step forward for the United States Senate and for the American people whose interests are served when government functions.  But it is not the end of the story.  There will be more legislation, more executive nominations and judicial nominees upon which the Senate will need to act over the next several months.  We hope the spirit of this agreement carries over to that business as well.  But if it does not, all options remain on the table for allowing the Senate to evolve in ways that make it a more effective institution.

              Today’s events demonstrate what can happen when a strong, unified, principled stand is taken against obstruction and dysfunction, and we will work hard to ensure that this same sense of purpose and firm resolve will be present when judicial nominations and vital legislation make their way to the Senate floor in the coming months.

            If this agreement fails to cure the culture of obstruction, we will fight for the reforms necessary to end the paralyzing gridlock that has characterized the Senate over the last several months.
 
         

Nan Aron on "The Broken Senate"

This is AFJ President Nan Aron's statement for today's forum at the National Press Club called "Fixing the Broken Senate: Restoring Democracy and Fixing the Filibuster."  

 ●Watch video of the forum at www.afj.org 
 ● Read more about Senate rules reform

Alliance for Justice is very pleased to be a part of this discussion about the “Broken Senate.” I feel like we’re coming to the end of the fifth season of a bad reality show.

Nan Aron

But what’s happening in the Senate is not fiction. It’s very real. The abuse of the filibuster has become a threat to the proper functioning of the government and to public faith in the institution of the Senate.  A recent poll by The Economist put the approval rate of Congress at nine percent. That’s incredible, but not really surprising.  It does make me wonder who those nine percent are. Family members? Campaign consultants?

It’s deplorable that the American people have so little regard for a crucial part of our government. It’s unhealthy for our democracy. And I don’t think there is any question that at least part of the problem has been the rampant misuse of the filibuster in the Senate, which has led to stalemate and gridlock in spite of the enormous problems the country now faces.

Let me be clear about something: The filibuster has a legitimate role when used responsibly. But we have entered an era of unprecedented abuse of rules and traditions, which is forcing the Senate to the brink of drastic action. The filibuster traditionally has been used to allow a minority to make a principled stand on matters of enormous and unusual importance.  It forces the process to slow down and helps ensure that all voices are heard. It’s a signal that something of significance is at stake. But that’s not what’s happening now.

This is the crucial point to understand.  As the motivation behind the filibuster has changed and its frequency increased, its legitimacy has declined. The fights over President Obama’s judicial nominees, for instance, are not ideological in any real sense. The president has gone out of his way to nominate men and women from the legal and political mainstream. Who could honestly say that the filibuster of Caitlin Halligan was some kind of titanic ideological fight?

Today’s filibusters are just crass politics. They reflect a desire to block the president’s agenda at every turn and feed the insatiable need of a hyper-partisan political base for endless obstruction. We’re in an era where one side believes cooperation is a dirty word—or an invitation to a primary challenge. When that intransigent attitude is paired with a procedural weapon as potent as the filibuster, gridlock is the result.  And that’s what makes the situation different today from what it has been in the past. And that’s why the nuclear option is back on the table.


Serious talk about changing the rules has been reborn because the filibuster has evolved from a                            
targeted tool to a weapon of indiscriminate disruption. The entire legislative process is now held captive to this threat. We’ve gotten to the point where just the threat of a filibuster is enough to derail the Senate. The abuse of the process has created a de facto threshold of 60 votes for action—a supermajority requirement for everyday business that can be found nowhere in the Constitution.

It’s important to remember that the problem isn’t just that bills and nominations with clear majorities are stopped, but that many nominations are never made and bills are never proposed, even though they could achieve a simple majority if they were given a chance. There is an invisible price for gridlock that the public never sees.

Obviously, the first test will come in the next few days when cloture petitions are expected to be filed on a series of executive branch nominees—Richard Cordray, Tom Perez, Gina McCarthy, and nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. What happens to these highly qualified nominees will set the tone for the rest of this Congress. If Republicans continue their current behavior and prevent final votes, then the choices will be narrowed to two options: allow crucial agencies that deal with hugely important issues to be left leaderless or reform the rules to permit up-or-down votes.

But the battle over executive nominees is just the beginning. The next big fight looming later this summer is over the President’s three nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  This is a case of the Republicans engaging in what will be a kind of Group Filibuster, where they don’t even pretend to care about the qualifications or ideologies of the individual nominees.  They just don’t want anyone appointed by President Obama to this crucial court no matter who they are.

Senator Grassley has complained that the President is trying to “pack the court,” as if filling vacant judgeships is some kind of unprecedented power grab. Republicans pretend to be outraged that the president has sent names forward for empty seats on the 11-member D.C. Circuit--just like every other president has done since the Grover Cleveland administration. This would be laughable if the consequences weren’t so serious.

Of course, we know why the Republicans will threaten to filibuster Patricia Millett, Nina Pillard, and Robert Wilkins. The D.C. Circuit is the federal appeals court that most closely oversees the actions of federal agencies on topics like the environment, consumer protections, workers’ rights, banking regulations, and other vital issues. Those are the same issues, by the way, that are at stake in the current executive nominations fights.  In some ways, the two big summer battles over executive and judicial nominations are really one big fight over the future of the country. Fair enough. But the question is, will the Senate be permitted to bring these issues to a final vote on the merits, or will procedural hurdles be erected to prevent democracy from functioning.

So at some point in the next several months, when the three DC Circuit nominees reach the floor, the Senate will have to make another set of choices, just like the ones it will start to face next week on executive nominations. Either accept the obstructionism of a hyper-partisan minority or change the rules to allow the President and the Senate to do the jobs the Constitution demands of them.

For those who care about our democracy and the courts, the choice is easy.

The American people are saying enough is enough. The time for reform is rapidly approaching.

Democracy on trial in the Senate

Republicans seek to obstruct Obama
executive, judicial nominees

Nan Aron

By Nan Aron
President, 
Alliance for Justice

            With battles ahead over President Obama’s choices for Secretary of Labor, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director and the National Labor Relations Board, and fights over the nation’s second most important court likely to follow, democracy itself is on trial in the United States Senate.

            If Republicans persist in preventing yes-or-no votes on President Obama’s executive and judicial nominees, the only recourse will be for the majority to revisit Senate rules reform and put an end once and for all to Republican efforts to subvert the Senate’s constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent.
 

Richard Cordray

        The first test is likely to come this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will schedule a vote on President Obama’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray.  The CFPB was created as part of the Wall Street Reform law as an agency solely devoted to protecting consumers of financial products from mortgages to credit cards.  In a transparent effort to protect the very special interests that collapsed our economy and brought ruin to so many Americans, Republicans so far have refused to confirm Cordray. In fact, Republicans have said they won’t confirm anyone to run the CFPB.

            Republicans have been equally obstinate about the president’s nominees for the National Labor Relations Board, the independent agency charged with protecting the rights of workers – and a hearing on those nominees just last week showed no thaw in that obstinacy.  That’s why Cordray and some of the current NLRB members had to be named through recess appointments.

            But three Republican-appointed judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, breaking with decades of precedent, decided that the President doesn’t have the power to make such recess appointments.  The decision is part of a pattern in which the D.C. Circuit consistently sides with corporate interests over workers and consumers – blocking Wall Street reforms, undermining labor rights, and rolling back environmental protections.

            So it’s no wonder that Republicans also are trying to prevent the president from restoring balance to the D.C. Circuit, which is currently dominated by Republican appointees.  The latest underhanded tactic from Republican Senators amounts to a ‘pre-emptive filibuster’ – an effort to eliminate three of the four vacant judgeships on the court in order to prevent President Obama from filling those seats.

Tom Perez

          But even that isn’t the end of the obstruction.  We are pleased that two Senate committees were able to overcome Republican stalling tactics and vote last week in favor of President Obama’s highly-qualified nominees to lead the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency.  The next step must be swift yes-or-no votes by the full Senate on the nominations of Tom Perez and Gina McCarthy.

            Unfortunately, these two outstanding nominees’ ordeals may be far from over.  All of the Republicans on both committees voted no.  As AFJ has pointed out before, to Senate Republicans, one of the only things as bad as a Labor Secretary who will protect working people is an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who will protect the environment.

           A solid majority of voters twice has made clear that they support the approach to government taken by Barack Obama.  In response, the Republican strategy boils down to rule-or-ruin.  They have shown themselves prepared to paralyze government, no matter what the cost to the American people.  In the days ahead, we will see if the Senate is ready to break free of this paralysis.

Republicans turn Senate rules, traditions into weapons of mass obstruction

Republican obstruction of the president’s nominees on the Senate floor through use of (often silent) filibusters has been well-documented, but in the past two days the public has seen what those of us working on judicial nominees have known for far too long – the obstruction is often just as bad at the committee level.

Gina McCarthy

Just one day after using an arcane procedural maneuver to delay a committee vote on the nomination of Tom Perez to serve as Secretary of Labor, Senate Republicans have used another underhanded ploy to delay a committee vote on the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.  They boycotted a meeting of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to prevent the Committee from even holding a vote.  Committee Republicans could hardly argue they lacked sufficient information to form an opinion on McCarthy – she answered more than 1,000 questions from committee members.

On one level this behavior is understandable.  To Senate Republicans, one of the only things as bad as a Labor Secretary who will protect working people is an Environmental Protection Agency administrator who will protect the environment.  But the brazen nature of these committee delay tactics is shocking nonetheless.

Unfortunately, in the context of judicial nominations, such committee delays have become commonplace – and start even earlier in the process.  By committee tradition,* the Senate Judiciary Committee typically won’t hold a hearing on a judicial nominee unless both home-state senators agree to allow the nomination to move forward.    Like any such tradition, it works only as long as it is not exploited.  But that is exactly what Senate Republicans are doing now.

That means some judicial nominees are stuck in limbo waiting for Judiciary Committee hearings months or years after they were nominated.  In many more cases, the White House – reluctant to impose that fate on nominees – is left waiting in vain for Republican home-state senators to help identify acceptable candidates.

And, coming full circle, hanging over all of this obstruction at the committee level (and sometimes before) is the knowledge that even if nominees survive those obstacles, they face the specter of the filibuster once they reach the floor.  The events of the past two days make clear, once again, that the weak-kneed agreement on Senate rules reached in January cannot come close to constraining the Republicans’ willingness to turn rules and traditions into weapons of mass obstruction.  The Senate needs to back to the drawing board and enact tough-minded rules reform now.

Read more about obstruction by Senate Republicans:

• In-depth report from The Huffington Post on how Republicans obstruct judicial nominees.
• Our overview of the need for Senate Rules Reform.
• The website of the rules reform coalition Fix The Senate Now.

*-Although this tradition has been in place to some degree for many years, not all Judiciary Committee chairmen have been as generous as the current one in waiting for both home-state senators to indicate assent before holding a hearing.

AFJ blasts "give them an inch and they take a mile" Republicans on Perez nomination

Alliance for Justice President Nan Aron issued the following statement in response to today’s postponement of a vote by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the nomination of Tom Perez to be Secretary of Labor:

Tom Perez

The “give them an inch and they take a mile” Senate Republicans, after being given the courtesy of a two-week delay on Tom Perez’s committee vote to serve as Secretary of Labor, today invoked an arcane procedural maneuver to delay that vote for yet another week.

As he has throughout his career, as labor secretary Tom Perez will stand up for the rights of working people.  For Senate Republicans that’s exactly the problem.  So Perez has become the latest target of a never-ending Republican campaign of fear, smear and obstruction.

The delays must stop here.  It’s time to confirm Tom Perez and give working Americans the champion they deserve.

Read more about Tom Perez at www.confirmperez.org

Alliance for Justice urges swift confirmation of Secretary of Labor nominee Tom Perez

On April 18, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

When Tom Perez took leadership of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division in 2009, he took over a unit “demoralized by its political leadership and diverted from its traditional tasks.” As former Deputy Attorney General David Ogden explains in The Huffington Post:

In particular, as found in an Inspector General report issued in January 2009, the Division had implemented illegal personnel practices, including making hiring decisions and case assignments based on partisanship rather than merit, and we observed that there were severe continuing consequences for morale, management, and effectiveness.

Fortunately, under Perez’s stewardship, the Civil Rights Division has experienced a remarkable turnaround, restoring its reputation as a stalwart defender of federal civil rights laws. Over the last four years, the Division has renewed enforcement of predatory lending, disability, employment discrimination, hate crimes, and veterans’ rights laws.

Furthermore,  Perez enjoys broad, bipartisan support. Dozens of groups, from civil rights advocates to business leaders, have written letters endorsing his nomination and urging his confirmation as Secretary of Labor. However, a minority of Republicans have threatened to filibuster, continuing an addiction to obstruction of President Obama’s nominees.

There is no doubt that Tom Perez is a highly qualified, dedicated nominee to serve as Secretary of Labor. He has spent his professional career in public service, committed to ensuring a fairer and more just society for all Americans. Alliance for Justice strongly endorses Assistant Attorney General Perez’s nomination as Secretary of Labor, and we hope for his swift confirmation.

Alliance for Justice is proud to join with more than 80 other organizations in supporting this nomination.  Learn more about Tom Perez here. 

You can help get Tom Perez confirmed.  Sign our Action Alert

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Crucial Justice Department nominations are still being held up in the Senate.

Dawn Johnsen, nominated to head the Office of Legal Counsel, and Tom Perez, whom the president picked to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, have been waiting for many months to be confirmed. Seven and five months, respectively. The last action on Johnsen's nomination occurred on March 19 and the last action for Perez on June 4. Both were placed on the executive calendar, but Republicans are obstructing the much-needed restoration of the DOJ’s role as a guardian of civil rights and liberties.

While there may be a vote on the Perez nomination as early as later next week, nothing is certain, and we need to keep up the pressure on all senators – with the message that these are vital positions that need to be filled. There is no reason to object to or obstruct the confirmation process of these highly qualified nominees.

Call your senators now and urge them to do all they can to help confirm Dawn Johnsen and Tom Perez. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121, ask to be connected with your senators’ offices, and tell them it is time to put an end to the partisan games.

The Justice Department was severely damaged during the Bush administration and the leadership of Dawn Johnsen and Tom Perez in two of its most important offices will help get it back on track defending our rights and liberties [not sure if I missed this in the original, but there shouldn't be a colon here] .

Call now. And ask others to do the same.

What We Learn from Van Jones: Vicious Attacks Must Not Silence Progressive Leaders

The resignation of Van Jones silences a much-needed progressive voice in the administration. There is no doubt he will once again don the mantle of advocacy he wears so well and continue to do great work fighting for the environment and civil rights.

Unfortunately, Mr. Jones is not the first, nor will he be the last, target of manufactured right-wing outrage or partisan witch hunts. Just ask Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose stellar career and accomplishments were reduced by the right wing to attacks on her “wise Latina” phrase. Or ask Tom Perez and Dawn Johnsen, two nominees to senior Justice Department posts who still await confirmation amidst partisan gameplaying.

Those yelling the loudest now about targeting administration officials--many of whom are women and people of color--for "extremist views" are the same voices who passionately defend the likes of John Ashcroft, Jay Bybee, and Donald Rumsfeld.

Van Jones’ forced resignation is a hard lesson for our progressive community. We have always known the corrosive effect the organized right wing has on reasonable debate, and their willingness to lie and wage baseless attacks on the character of good and strong leaders.

But instead of each group defending leaders of our own communities, all of us -- environmentalists, civil rights, women’s, human rights groups, you name it – must work together to defend progressive leaders from the kind of vicious attacks that have denied America a creative, innovative public servant like Van Jones, and that threaten to keep Dawn Johnsen, Tom Perez, and others from serving in the Obama administration.

Van Jones has much more to offer this country, and Alliance for Justice looks forward to proudly standing with him and other committed progressives to fight for the change America needs.