Nomination Of Alan D. Solomont

Floor Speech

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on September 21, 2009, I announced my intention to object to proceeding to the nomination of Alan D. Solomont to be the Ambassador to Spain because of the incomplete responses that the Corporation for National and Community Service, CNCS, had provided to my document requests regarding the removal of its Inspector General, Gerald Walpin. Mr. Solomont was the chairman of the board of CNCS at the time that my requests went unanswered, and he began the process that led to Mr. Walpin's removal by contacting the White House Counsel's Office on May 20, 2009.

Since September 21, the White House produced approximately 1,900 additional pages of previously withheld documents. During that time, my staff conducted a series of negotiations with CNCS and the White House Counsel's Office over the hundreds of pages of remaining documents that were being withheld or had been redacted. As a result of these negotiations, this week the White House authorized and CNCS provided: 1. descriptions of the information redacted from several CNCS documents, 2. 37-previously produced documents with substantive redactions removed, and 3. 370 pages of previously withheld documents. In addition, the White House made Mr. Solomont available for a follow-up interview on December 8, 2009, so that he could be questioned about new information that had been learned from these documents and other sources since his initial interview on July 15, 2009.

In order to obtain this additional information, I agreed to no longer object to proceeding to Mr. Solomont's nomination if the White House took these steps. I have kept my word and informed leadership that I no longer intend to object. However, I remain concerned about the accuracy and completeness of Mr. Solomont's answers to questions during both his July 15 and December 8, 2009 interviews. I understand Congressman Issa of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform shares those concerns and has sent a letter to Mr. Solomont to that effect.

Although CNCS has produced a total of approximately 3,000 pages of material responsive to my request, the record should also be clear that the White House continues to withhold 46 documents, on grounds of deliberative process and attorney work product privileges. The White House did not provide a detailed log of the documents being withheld despite my requests. I will continue to seek answers to the remaining questions in this matter.

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