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JANUARY 18, 2001

The following is text of the remarks between Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) and Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on January 17, 2001.

CANTWELL: Senator Ashcroft, you and I have not met before this morning. I've not had the opportunity, the same as my colleagues, in working with you in the past, so I looked forward to this question and answer session to, if I can, get some specifics on some policy areas in your record as well as the process by which you intend to uphold the law in these key areas.

And I will try to be brief in my comments. If you could be brief in your answers, maybe we could get through a couple of these key issues. Otherwise, I'll come back to you.

But, first I'd like to go to the environment, because, obviously, to be sure the attorney general plays a significant role in protecting the environment. The Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice has been called the nation's environmental lawyer. In fact, the 700 employees, you could say, is the largest environmental law firm in the country.

The division is charged with several tasks, obviously relating to protecting the environment. The division ensures environmental laws on the books--whether that's the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act--and vigorously enforces--on behalf of its primary client agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, it also defends the United States against suits and challenges to federal laws. And also the division criminally prosecutes the worst offenders of the environment.

So there can be no doubt that the Department of Justice, through this division, has a crucial role in maintaining a clean environment for future generations.

Unfortunately, Senator Ashcroft, I am troubled with your environmental record, particularly in attempts to weaken enforcement tools that EPA has, but as been said at this hearing numerous times, the job of attorney general is different. Now you will be charged with vigorously enforcing the very environmental laws are some of which you may have disagreed with. And obviously we've covered this, but I--it's a very important issue that I'd like to cover.

And that is, how do you proceed given that clearly the Environmental and Natural Resources Division exercises this vital role? Will we continue to see an aggressive division that enforces the current law and goes after polluters? And will we continue to see a very aggressive and vigorous enforcement of the Superfund laws that ensures that environmental clean-up is done and completed?

ASHCROFT: Well, let me thank you very much for your questions and thank you for the opportunity to meet you this morning.

I appreciate the clarity of your questions.

I have had an opportunity to enforce environmental regulations before, in prior incarnations as a state attorney and governor. Whether it was fish kills or whether it was making sure that the way in which federal projects were operated and power generation facilities that threaten the wildlife and fish in my home state, I took action. It is an important division.

I believe that we should do everything we can to fully enforce the environmental laws. That doesn't distinguish it from other divisions of the attorney general's office. It'll be my responsibility to fully enforce the laws in all of them. I have a commitment to the environment, personally, as well as a commitment to the environment that would come as a result of my oath of office.

I happen to be a private environmentalist. Janet and I own a farm of 155 acres, which we have tried to maintain in ways that enhance the environment, with cultivating the right kind of trees so it qualifies as a tree farm, and sowing the right kind of grasses and weaving the right kind of borders between the river and the rest of the farm so that we do that. I say that just to let you know that I'm a person that believes that our responsibility is one of stewardship and that certainly would reinforce my willingness to obey the law and to enforce it.

CANTWELL: I do have some concerns about your environmental record, but I'll leave that for a side and get to a specific question that I think may be very timely, and that is the Department of Agriculture's recently issued final roadless area conservation rule.

Certainly, the implementation of the roadless initiative has been long and somewhat controversial. Already the rule is being challenged in the courts. As attorney general, will you aggressively defend and uphold this rule, which was implemented in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act? If I'm not mistaken, this is exactly the type of case that the Environmental Defense Section of the Environmental and Natural Resources Section of DOJ is charged with defending.

ASHCROFT: Very frankly, I'm not familiar with this rule. And I would have to examine it carefully and make a decision based on the outcome of my consultation with members of the department and others in the process.

CANTWELL: It is a very timely issue, and I would like further information on that, as it relates to the particulars of a rule that has now been put in place and, obviously, is being challenged in the courts.

ASHCROFT: I'll be happy to work to provide you with additional information on that.

CANTWELL: Thank you.

My second line of questioning is in regards to family planning. We have learned, during the time that you were in the Senate, you have advocated what some would describe as an extreme position in regards to reproductive choice and contraception. For example, you were a supporter of the human life amendment to the Constitution that would have declared life begins at conception, not fertilization. Many believe that such a binding legal precedent would outlaw common contraception, such as the pill.

And, as I've stated before, you are entitled, obviously, in your previous position as senator, to your opinions. That said, the nominee of the Office of the U.S. Attorney General, let me ask you, specifically about contraception. Are your personal views opposed to family planning?

ASHCROFT: I think individuals who want to plan their families have every right to do so.

CANTWELL: In the use of contraception?

ASHCROFT: I think individuals who want to use contraceptives have every right to do so.

CANTWELL: So in regards...

ASHCROFT: I think that right is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

CANTWELL: So about the laws that create legal rights to contraceptive coverage, for example, the EEOC recently issued a decision stating that employers who fail to include contraceptive coverage in employee health benefit plans, engage in sexual discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Notwithstanding your personal opinion, will you defend the challenges to this law or initiate actions against employers who fail to provide such coverage?

ASHCROFT: I have not examined the law on the requirement that a private employer provide coverage in this respect. And I'm, at this time, not prepared to comment or to provide advice about the course of action I would take there.

CANTWELL: And is that something that you wouldn't comment further on before your vote on nomination, or just this afternoon?

ASHCROFT: Well, I would defend the rule. You know, it's the job of the attorney general to defend the rule, but in terms of my own comments about how I feel about it, I haven't weighed the legal--I thought you were asking me for advice on it, and maybe I misconstrued your question.

CANTWELL: Yes, would you defend challenges to the law or initiate action against employers who did discriminate against...

ASHCROFT: I would defend challenges to the law and seek to uphold the law.

CANTWELL: Including actions against employers who failed to provide such coverage?

ASHCROFT: I'm not sure I have the enforcement authority of that rule in the Justice Department, were I to be confirmed. And so I'd be reluctant to say that I would deploy the resources of the Department of Justice to enforce the rule, if the enforcement is, by statute, focused in another agency.

CANTWELL: Thank you.

I'd like to cover one last issue, if I could, and it follows a line of thinking similar to some of the questions asked earlier today about judicial appointments. And I guess I'm trying to, if you will, understand the Ashcroft standard on your process of judicial appointments.

There is one judicial appointment that I'm familiar with, Margaret McCuen (ph), a federal judge from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. And I won't go through her various accomplishments, but she was supported by both Senator Gorton and Senator Murray, and in the end, after a two-year delay, she was confirmed by a 80-to-11 vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate. So in that particular case, your opposition to Margaret McCuen (ph)--I'm just trying to understand, again, the Ashcroft standard in looking at the decision in opposition to that appointment.

ASHCROFT: Frankly, I don't remember the case. There were 230 different votes on judges. I do know that 218 times I voted for confirmation, but I don't remember the circumstance.

CANTWELL: Well, I would ask if--this is a very important appointment as it relates to the Northwest, and I guess my concern is in a speech that you gave--and not to catch you off of comments, because we all give speeches--this was given in March of '97, in which you characterized Margaret McCuen (ph) as "taking marching orders from the ACLU" and characterized her efforts as "sinister," in, I thought, a very harsh tone against a nominee that you and 10 other senators voted against.

And so if you could get me information about your opposition to her. And I'd be happy to provide the copy of these remarks that were a part of the Heritage Lectures.

But in trying to understand the framework of us moving forward on your nomination, I'm trying to understand the framework of which you applied to other appointees and reflection upon that as you put your own team together in the various divisions underneath you.

ASHCROFT: Thank you, Senator.

Let me just add this, that the standard for judicial nominations and lifetime positions are integrity, a commitment to rule of law, no issue litmus tests.

President-elect Bush has said he wants judges who will interpret the law, not legislate from the bench.

I'll be happy to provide you additional information about the particular inquiry you made, and thank you for it.

CANTWELL: Well, I think my question relates to the fact that she was held up for two years, and your comments on record have been harsh, so I'd like to know your criteria and standards. So, I appreciate you getting back to me on that.

ASHCROFT: Thank you.

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Cantwell questions Ashcroft (Politics 1/18)