Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I rise in support of the nomination of Todd Jones to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I wish to first thank Senator Coons for his remarks about Samantha Power. I am also looking forward to the vote on her confirmation. I am looking forward to her service.

This is a very important job. As the Presiding Officer knows, the ATF has an incredibly important role in investigating crimes and terrorist incidents such as the Boston Marathon. They recently investigated the explosion in Texas that took so many innocent lives. This must be a top priority for the United States of America.

Yet this is a position where there are 2,400 agents--2,400 ATF agents--and they have gone without a permanent Director for 7 years, ever since this became a confirmable position. This happened under President Bush. There was not a confirmed Director. It is happening now up until today under President Obama. It is time to change that. It is simply time to change it.

I know Todd Jones. For 2 years he has served as the U.S. attorney of Minnesota at the same time he is serving as the ATF Director. That is not an easy job. He has five children. He is a former marine. He was willing to take on the ATF job after the Fast and Furious debacle. He was willing to come in after that and help to clean up that agency and make some very tough decisions. He took on that job while still remaining the U.S. attorney in Minnesota.

I would note he served as the U.S. attorney of Minnesota under President Clinton and again was appointed to serve under President Obama. Then, 2 years ago, he was asked to be the Acting Director of ATF, never knowing if this day would ever come when actually there would be a vote on his confirmation.

He literally has never turned down a tough assignment. Todd Jones has an impressive background that makes him well prepared to lead the ATF. After law school at the University of Minnesota, he entered the U.S. Marine Corps, as I noted, where he served on Active Duty as a judge advocate and infantry officer from 1983 until 1989. Two years later, he was called back to Active Duty during the first Iraq war.

In addition to his military career and having the rare distinction of serving as U.S. attorney under two different Presidents, Todd Jones also has a strong record as a line prosecutor in the Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office. When Jones was U.S. attorney in Minnesota from 1998 to 2001, the violent crime rate decreased by 15 percent. So far during his second tenure as the U.S. attorney, the violent crime rate in Minnesota has already decreased by 9 percent.

We all know there are a lot of factors that go into that, including the great work of our local police officers, including work of our police chiefs, including the work of community groups, including the economy. There are a number of things at hand. But when I hear attacks against Mr. Jones, I believe it is important to set the record straight.

One other thing--I did want to set the record straight on one other thing. I so appreciate the leadership Senator Grassley has shown when it comes to whistleblowers. But everyone should know, regarding this complaint within the office, an internal complaint within the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, it was investigated by the Judiciary Committee. In this place, to set the record straight, the complainant voluntarily agreed to mediate his concerns. The Office of Special Counsel is no longer investigating. I wish to make that straight for all of my colleagues so they understand the outcome of that and that there is a mediation going on. It is not being investigated.

As an assistant U.S. attorney, Todd Jones was the lead prosecutor in a number of cases involving drug conspiracies, money laundering, financial fraud, and violent crime in the early 1990s. In the private sector, he became a partner at two very well regarded Minnesota law firms, Robins Kaplan and Greene Espel. He has led a number of very important prosecutions in his capacity as U.S. attorney: Operation Rhino, which involved the criminal prosecution of Omer Abdi Mohamed, who recruited young Somali Americans to fight for terrorist groups in Somalia, To date, this investigation has resulted in charges filed against 22 other individuals and Operation Brother's Keeper, a major RICO case, the second biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of America, second only to the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, by a fine prosecutor named Joe Dixon and many others under Todd Jones's leadership.

This gives us a sense--and I would end with this as I see Senator Leahy, our great chairman is here. Jones's confirmation is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Chiefs of Police, 81 U.S. attorneys, the National District Attorneys Association, Minnesota's former FBI Special Agent in Charge, Ralph Boelter, the former U.S. attorney Tom Hefflefinger, who served under both George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush in Minnesota, and dozens of others who have worked with Mr. Jones over his many years of public service.

I would end with this: The ATF has people on the frontlines every day. They do not ask if the work they have done is ordered by a Republican or a Democrat. When they go to investigate a bombing, they do not ask the police officers what their political affiliation is or who the FBI is. They do not care. They just do their job. Now it is time for the Senate to do its job and confirm an ATF Director for the first time in 7 years. I thank the chairman for his leadership.

I yield the floor.

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