Coloretti Nomination

Floor Speech

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I continue my objection to consideration of the nomination of Nani Coloretti to be the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In keeping with my efforts to end secret holds, I have been very open about the reason I put a hold on this nomination. The Obama administration isn't giving me the same consideration.

In May, I found out about questionable hiring practices at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN. FinCEN is an agency within the Treasury Department that collects and analyzes financial reports for law enforcement agencies to use in their money laundering investigations.

FinCEN has been hiring additional personnel to beef up its enforcement division. The problem occurred when the agency posted the job requirements but then disqualified candidates for a criterion that was never in the original job posting: a law degree.

This is illegal under Federal hiring guidelines.

I also learned that FinCEN rejected qualified veterans who applied for the positions. Veterans' preference doesn't guarantee veterans a job but it does give them extra consideration for jobs for which they are qualified.

The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans is significantly higher than the rate for the general population. These men and women are extremely capable. They have an array of job skills to offer in the workplace.

It is inexcusable for FinCEN, or any other Federal agency, to reject qualified veterans who faithfully served our country.

The Office of Personnel Management already determined that the FinCEN hiring practices were illegal and referred the case to both the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Treasury Department's Inspector General. The investigations need to cover whether Treasury Department officials knew about the hiring problems and did nothing until OPM forced their hand. And if FinCEN tried to game the system to shortchange our Nation's veterans Congress needs to know. In addition, whoever is responsible must be held accountable.

To find out what happened, I requested all emails sent between the Treasury Department and FinCEN on this matter.

As the Treasury Assistant Secretary for Management, Ms. Coloretti oversees the Treasury's human resources department and may have known about the illegal hiring practices, or was at least in a position to know. If she did, she certainly shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion. However, regardless of her involvement, the Treasury Department needs to come clean.

As I said earlier, I have requested emails from the Treasury Department to help me get to the bottom of this. So far, I have received four emails.

Instead of open transparency, the Obama administration is once again obstructing access to the information I need to conduct proper congressional oversight.

The Treasury Department tried to convince me that no other relevant emails exist but I am not convinced. Their search was limited to only the 8 months when the vacancy announcements were open. This excluded any email communications that took place in preparation for posting the announcements or during 2014 when problems with the announcements were found. That is unacceptable. So I will continue my objection to consideration of Ms. Coloretti's nomination.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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