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Floor Speech

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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I wish to thank and join my friend and colleague from Minnesota Senator Klobuchar in her remarks about Todd Jones. He is one of two very distinguished law enforcement nominees who will come before this body for confirmation in the coming days.

I wish to join my friend in enthusiastically praising Acting Director Jones for his perseverance and courage in the past months, indeed years, he has served in this critical position.

When we recently went through the debate on sensible commonsense gun violence measures--which, unfortunately, did not pass this body--we often heard about the need for more prosecutions, more effective investigation and pursuit of cases against lawbreakers involving guns. Todd Jones is committed to that task. I believe--with many others--that there needs to be more prosecutions and more effective enforcement of these laws.

ATF needs more resources to do those prosecutions and it needs more leadership, which Todd Jones can provide if he is confirmed and given the mandate from the Senate that he needs and the agency deserves to do its work more effectively.

In just a few minutes, we will hear from my great friend and colleague from Connecticut about the continuing scourge of gun violence and how it continues to take a toll in the absence of effective measures from the Congress.

I join my colleague in urging that this body fulfill its obligation, mandate, and responsibility from the American people to do more and do it more effectively. We need to adopt sensible measures, such as national background checks, a ban on illegal trafficking and straw purchases, a more effective mental health initiative, and school safety measures, which Todd Jones will bring to this office. He will address gun violence and all of the responsibilities within the important purview of the ATF.

The Alcohol, Traffic, and Firearms Bureau has a long, storied, and distinguished history, and Todd Jones will make it more so through his leadership.

Equally important, this afternoon we will vote on James Comey--I am proud to say he is a resident of Fairfield, CT--as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I know this agency well because I worked with agents of the FBI day in and day out when I was U.S. attorney in Connecticut for 4 1/2 years. I know it well because I have seen his work as attorney general of Connecticut. I know it well because over the years I have come to know the extraordinary men and women of the FBI.

They are extraordinary in their bravery, perseverance, and skill. They are extraordinary in their expertise, experience, and their respect for the law, which is so critical. They have a sense of balance and mission along with their dedication to making America safer. Their mandate and purview has expanded over the years from the days when car thefts and kidnapping comprised a major part of their caseload to now cybersecurity, terrorism, and computer hacking.

Jim Comey is a man for the modern FBI, an agency with a long and distinguished history that now faces new threats and new responsibilities. He is truly a prosecutor's prosecutor. His life's work has been about law enforcement.

He began in the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He rose to become Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. He soon moved to the job of managing assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where his superiors recognized his exceptional ability, his remarkable combination of scholarship, and practical sense of investigation.

When they assigned to him responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Khobar barracks in Saudi Arabia, he quickly delivered 14 indictments and earned another promotion. This time he was promoted to become the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. His service there was recognized as remarkably distinguished and successful, especially in overseeing that office's terrorism investigations and prosecutions. He made a priority of corporate crime--white-collar crime.

He never feared to take on the toughest of challenges. He prosecuted big businesses but also terrorism. He received the Director's Award for superior performance and the Henry L. Stimson Medal from the New York City Bar Association.

He became Deputy Attorney General, the second highest ranking official at the Department of Justice. In that job--and much has been written about this incident in his professional life--he demonstrated unbelievable and passionate dedication to the rule of law by standing up to his own superiors and in speaking truth to power on a variety of issues but most especially when he stood up to some of the President's men, and his own superiors, in saying he would stand for personal constitutional rights at a time when they were threatened. He has been a person of integrity and dedication to the rule of law--bigger than any single person throughout his career--even in the face of that kind of tremendous pressure.

In my conversations with him, he has also committed himself to the vigorous and zealous pursuit of gun violence. I have spoken to him publicly and privately about this issue. He testified in response to my questions, and others, and clearly demonstrated his commitment to effective enforcement of existing and improved laws, such as background checks and a ban on straw purchases and illegal trafficking.

He has also committed himself publicly, and in his conversation with me, to a continued crackdown on human trafficking. I wish to thank and commend the FBI for its stunningly successful arrests of 150 pimps. They rescued 105 children in a nationwide crackdown--literally within the past 24 to 48 hours--including 6 children in New Haven, CT.

This stunning success shows dramatically--including the rescue of six children in Connecticut--how this invisible, pernicious scourge can hit close to home. It has hit home in Connecticut. I saw it, as attorney general of our State, as a crime, a predatory scourge that hits men and women and children--most searingly and heartbreakingly, children who are forced into labor or into sexual exploitation.

The FBI's crackdown shows that an effective partnership involving local police--like law enforcement in New Haven, CT, where six children were rescued--along with State and Federal law enforcement can effectively crack down on this scourge. The FBI is to be commended and so is Mr. Comey for his commitment to combat this problem.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time is expired.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 additional minutes.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. BLUMENTHAL. As I said, I commend the FBI and I thank them for this effective action and Mr. Comey for his commitment to continuing that crackdown on human trafficking.

I also thank his wife and his family, his five children, for their generosity in becoming an adoption family; that is, adopting children, through the licensed foster parents program in Connecticut. I thank them for becoming foster parents, I should say more accurately, and caring for infants and toddlers. They have also donated money to create a foundation to support children who age out of foster care.

He is truly a man dedicated to public service. We will be proud of him as an effective and able leader of the FBI in a challenging time.

I yield the floor.

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