Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I have come to the floor this morning to speak in support of the nomination of Mr. James Danly to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Mr. Danly has been nominated for the remainder of a term that runs through June 30, 2023, and for a seat that has been open now since former Chairman Kevin McIntyre tragically passed away from brain cancer about 14 months ago.

For those who don't follow the day-to-day of energy policy, FERC is an independent agency within the Department of Energy. It regulates electricity, hydropower, natural gas, and oil pipeline industries. In my view, FERC is one of those very, very important entities. FERC plays a critical role in keeping the lights on and ensuring the delivery of reliable, safe, and affordable energy to America's homes and businesses.

Mr. Danly has an impressive academic and professional background. He is a veteran, having served two tours of duty with the Army in Iraq, where he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart, and played a key role in executing counterinsurgency efforts during the surge.

After his career with the Army, Mr. Danly chose to pursue a very different career as a FERC attorney, first practicing at a major law firm and most recently serving as FERC's general counsel for the past 2\1/2\ years now.

Mr. Danly's time at the FERC has been very productive. He has my strong support to be a Commissioner. This is the type of individual who knows his stuff, who has a great grasp and a keen understanding of these energy-related matters. He is well qualified and has a deep understanding of the issues that will come before him. He understands FERC's mission as an independent and an impartial regulator.

Despite Mr. Danly's very impressive qualifications and experience, I am disappointed that some of my colleagues have indicated they will oppose his nomination simply because he isn't nominated alongside a Democratic candidate. So they will acknowledge that he has strong qualifications, that he has the expertise and the experience, but they are opposing him because they are saying he needs to be nominated alongside a Democrat. To me, opposing nominees on that basis alone is very troubling.

It is also incorrect to characterize pairing FERC nominees as the norm. I think Members should recognize that FERC is set up first and foremost to avoid the need for pairings. We passed a law in Congress in 1990 to stagger the five Commissioners' terms by 1 year each. So if nominees are sent to the Senate in a timely manner and stay in office, we would never need to pair them.

Also contrary to what some have suggested, bipartisan pairings are not actually the norm. More often, we have confirmed individual Commissioners or had unbalanced pairings, like Colette Honorable in 2014 or the two Republican Commissioners we confirmed in 2017 after the Obama administration refused to nominate any Republicans in 2015 or 2016.

I also encourage the Senate to recognize that this seat has already been paired. In 2017, we paired Mr. McIntyre with Rich Glick, who will continue to serve through mid-2022. The slot we are now considering is to fill the remainder of Mr. McIntyre's term through mid-2023.

The fact is, we have one nomination for the Senate right now, not two. We have one nomination to consider, and this position has been open now for some 14 months. It is not fair to tell a qualified Republican nominee that he has to wait, especially with the seat now having been open for more than 1 year and the term expiring in mid- 2023. That doesn't change.

I would also remind my colleagues that nominations are the responsibility of the President. It is not on me as the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. It is not on Leader McConnell. It is the responsibility of the President.

The much more recent Democratic vacancy at FERC, which was the choice of the Democratic leadership in this body, is for the Democratic leadership to work out with the White House. Send to the White House that nominee who can be advanced.

For those who are concerned about the Democratic vacancy, I will share this with you. There will be an opportunity for a pairing later this year. Commissioner McNamee has already announced that he will not return to the FERC for a second term, so there will be a vacancy in just a matter of months. I have encouraged the administration to send us both nominees at the same time so that the Senate can restore FERC to a full complement of five Commissioners. We give them a lot of work. There is a lot of responsibility. They need a full complement.

Right now, our opportunity is to confirm Mr. Danly. That is who we have in front of us. He is the only FERC nominee we have. He is well qualified for the job. He served our country in uniform. He now wishes to continue that service in a different capacity, and I hope--I hope-- no one will vote against him on party grounds. So I would certainly urge the full Senate to support Mr. Danly's nomination.

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the Alaska State Senate yesterday passed a bill that would establish March 12, today, as Ashley Johnson- Barr Day to be held each year.

Ashley Johnson-Barr was a 10-year-old beautiful little girl in Kotzebue, AK. Ashley was probably one of those happy kids who loved purple; thus, I have a purple scarf and purple jacket today. She was one of those beautiful young children growing up in Kotzebue who would have gone on to have a good, productive life in an Inupiat community in the northwestern part of the State. But Ashley Johnson-Barr is remembered now because, at the age of 10 years old, she was brutally raped and murdered. She was literally taken from the kids' playground there in Kotzebue and taken to a location not too many miles outside the community.

Her death, the tragedy around the circumstance of how she left this world, is one that is an open and raw and hurtful and horrific scar on Alaska and on the communities. It is a reminder that in my State--a place of extraordinary beauty, with beautiful people--there is a darkness that is very, very difficult to talk about. That darkness is reflected in the statistics that we see when it comes to sexual assault, domestic violence, and more brutal acts of murder inflicted, unfortunately, in a disproportionate way on our Native women and our Native children.

Yesterday in the Senate, we passed two measures that I have been working on for a period of time. Savanna's Act is legislation that was initially brought about through the good work of my friend, the former Senator from North Dakota, Senator Heidi Heitkamp. Heidi and I worked on Savanna's Act for a period of time. It is designed to improve coordination among all levels of law enforcement; increase data collection and information sharing; and empower Tribal governments with access to necessary law enforcement databases in cases involving missing and murdered indigenous women and girls wherever they occur, whether they are in a small, remote village or in our population centers.

Savanna's law was passed through the Senate in the last Congress and got stalled out in the House. So I took this back up, along with the help of my friend from the State of Nevada, Senator Cortez Masto. Working with her, we have now been successful in moving it through the Senate. It traveled with another measure--a bill that was sponsored by Senator Cortez Masto and cosponsored by me.

The Not Invisible Act improves the engagement amongst law enforcement Tribal leaders, Federal partners, and service providers. We also designate an official to coordinate efforts across agencies in establishing a Tribal and Federal stakeholders' effort to make recommendations to the Department of the Interior Department of Justice on how we deal with this, how we combat this epidemic of disappearance, of homicide, violent crimes, and trafficking of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. This is something we have been trying to shine the spotlight on.

We are making significant progress and headway in Alaska. Thanks to the efforts and the heart of Attorney General Barr, we have seen Federal funds come our way. We have seen commissions and a coordination among stakeholders that is truly unprecedented, but we have much, much, much work to do.

On this day, when in Alaska, we are recognizing the very short life of a beautiful child, Ashley Johnson-Barr. I thank my colleagues for working with us on these matters--helping us move Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act--and working together to do more as we deal with those who are trafficked, those who are assaulted, and those who are violently murdered in their homes and in their hometowns. We have much work to do, but we have good coordination and good cooperation moving forward.

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