Senate Confirmations

Floor Speech

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Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleague Senator Murkowski from the great State of Alaska--our great State--for talking about someone we really care about and someone who will do really important things for the entire country.

Senator Murkowski talked about Tara Sweeney's background. When we had the confirmation hearing in Indian Affairs, I had the honor of introducing her. She did fantastic in that interview. Republicans and Democrats all agree.

When you look at her background, she is a leader. You can read her resume. You can see all of the things that this relatively young woman has accomplished. Senator Murkowski mentioned some. She was, for example, the cochair of the Alaska Federation of Natives. That is an elected position in Alaska. Almost 20 percent of our population is Alaska Native. She was one of the youngest cochairs ever on that incredibly important organization.

She was the chair of the Arctic Economic Conference. She has also served in leadership positions at her Alaska Native Regional Corporations and the National Congress of American Indians, and she is ready to lead an organization that needs leadership. She is clearly qualified.

Sometimes there can be confusion in terms of the laws that this body passes. In 1971 the Congress of the United States passed, and the President of the United States signed, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA back home. As Senator Murkowski mentioned, this set up not reservation systems like we have in the lower 48 but a very innovative approach to Alaska Native claims for their land, and 44 million acres of State and Federal land went to the possession and ownership of the first peoples of Alaska. It was very innovative.

This body created Alaska regional corporations and village corporations, of which all our Alaska Native people are shareholders. My wife is a shareholder. My daughters are shareholders. That was mandated by the Congress. Yet, as Tara Sweeney has gone through her confirmation process, the Federal Government seemed to wake up to the fact that Alaska Native individuals owned shares in these Alaska corporations that Congress created, and time and again, they started to seemingly almost hold it against her.

Let me give you a little bit of a timeline of the delays that Senator Murkowski mentioned. She was nominated by the President to serve as the Assistant Secretary on October 16, 2017. That is almost 9 months ago.

First, her nomination went through a very long process through the Office of Government Ethics--again, because of the birthright shares that she is entitled to as an Alaskan Native because Congress told them that. So there was confusion. Again, a lot of people didn't know what this was. At one point, there was even the sense that she couldn't have the job until she sold her shares. But she can't sell her shares, as Senator Murkowski said. It is not like owning IBM or Microsoft.

Certainly, we were saying that if that were the precedent, you would rule out an entire class of great people--our constituents--from serving in the Federal Government. That couldn't be the precedent.

She has worked through this with the Office of Government Ethics, which has completely cleared her with regard to how she is going to manage these shares and recuse herself from anything her regional corporation has before her, which, by the way, historically, has almost never happened. She said she would do this in writing. That satisfied the Office of Government Ethics.

Her nomination hearing was held on May 9, where she again committed to recuse herself from matters that pertain to her regional corporation.

On June 6, she was unanimously voted out of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. During the confirmation hearing, she said several times that she would recuse herself. In that hearing, as I mentioned, members on both sides again asked for assurances that she would recuse herself from issues pertaining to her regional corporation, and again, she provided assurances in writing after the hearing.

You are starting to see a pattern here. I am not sure there is anyone who has gone through Senate confirmation recently who has had to reassure and say she is going to recuse herself again and again on an issue more than Tara Sweeney has. It is pretty remarkable, when you think about the fact that the reason she has these shares is because this body voted to create the act in 1971, and yet there is amnesia all over this city and, certainly, in this body.

Once again, as we are trying to move her to the floor, it looks like there has been another demand for another assurance and another letter on the same issues. So once again, Ms. Sweeney has provided that. Certainly, I hope that my colleagues--whoever is demanding this--will say: That is enough. If this very highly qualified person owned IBM or Microsoft or something like that, this would have been done and over. She would have recused herself. Yet, somehow, because she is an Alaska Native shareholder, there seems to be cause for additional delay. I think that is sad.

I certainly hope that is not intended to somehow focus on making it more difficult for an Alaska Native to serve in such an important position. I hope that is not what is going on here. The pattern is starting to get a little bit difficult to endure.

I think further delay, as Senator Murkowski mentioned, is a disservice to someone as qualified as Tara Sweeney, and it is not reasonable. She has been waiting for months. Every time there has been a demand made on her, she does it. Every time there is a letter to ask her to reassure something, she has reassured several times. She does it, but there is delay. That is not good for the individual. It is not good, actually, for trying to get good people to serve in the Federal Government, which we all want.

Senator Murkowski also underscored that further delay is not good for anyone who is an Alaska Native or an American Indian or somebody who cares about them, like we do, because right now, the most important position in the Federal Government, the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of Interior--which will be headed by someone who is immensely qualified in Tara Sweeney--is not filled. As Senator Murkowski mentioned, there is so much work to be done. This woman is a leader. She will get on it. She will get on it to help Alaska Native people and to help lower 48 American Indians.

We all know there are significant challenges on reservations and in some of the Alaska Native villages. We need a leader, and we have the leader. We have her. I am really concerned if there is going to be any more delay. What this body should do is confirm her right now.

Senator Murkowski and I are getting ready to ask at a certain point today, before the Senate moves to recess for the Fourth of July recess, for a unanimous consent request. As far as I can tell, almost every Senator knows that this is important. I am certainly hoping all my colleagues are not going to ask for further delay. I am certainly hoping they are not going to ask for further delay that somehow relates to her being an Alaska Native. That would be highly inappropriate.

Hopefully, we can move this nomination forward for confirmation today so that Tara Sweeney can get to work for some of the most important people in this country. We have been without a leader in this position for way too long.

I am certainly encouraging my colleagues--everybody here--to clear this unanimous consent request when we make it, and that we get her confirmed today.

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