I did not agree with the President’s recent clemency decision, but I recognize that it is his decision to make. When I was State’s Attorney for Chittenden County, I did not always agree when the Governor of Vermont exercised his clemency power, but I understood that it was his to exercise as he saw fit. There were numerous exercises of this constitutional power by the Republican and Democratic presidents with whom I have served over the last 25 years – President Carter used this power more than 560 times, President Reagan more than 400 times and President Bush more than 75 times – and they have not always been matters with which I necessarily agreed.

My heart goes out to the victims appearing here today. When I was privileged to serve as Chittenden County’s prosecutor, I had the good fortune to work alongside a number of dedicated State and local officers. These public servants literally put their lives on the line each day to protect all of us. Their responsibilities require split-second judgment, dedication, timing, and guts. That members of law enforcement and their families also suffered as victims of bombings attributed to the FALN makes these matters even more difficult.

While all are free to comment on the President’s clemency decisions – and to disagree, as I do – the Congress should focus on getting its own work done. While the Republican leadership is hard-pressed to find the time to deal with a number of critical legislative issues, the Senate has devoted much time last week and this week to a resolution condemning the President’s clemency decision. Yesterday a subcommittee of the Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on the matter and yesterday the Senate passed a substitute version of the resolution.

Earlier this week, I cautioned against the extreme rhetoric of the version of the Lott-Coverdell resolution that was initially introduced. Through the course of the last week some of the misstatements of fact that were contained in the original version of the resolution have been corrected and its most extreme and dangerous political rhetoric has been eliminated. Yesterday, the Senate adopted a substitute for the resolution that deleted much of the overreaching language of the initial version.

We ought to be careful when anyone, let alone the Senate and Congress of the United States, starts bandying about declarations that accuse the United States Government of making “deplorable concessions to terrorists,” “undermining national security” or “emboldening domestic and international terrorists.” Playing politics with this matter and accusing the President of "undermining our national security" or "emboldening terrorists" carries significant risks and was not right. I am glad that language was eliminated from the text of the resolution the Senate passed yesterday.

The American people can judge whether the time and energy being devoted by the Congress to criticizing the President’s decision in hearings and in debates on resolutions is the best use of the our legislative resources. I challenge the Senate to make time for votes on the important legislative matters and many qualified nominees whom the Republican majority has stalled for the last several years. The Senate has not completed work on 11 of the 13 appropriations bills that must be passed before October 1. The Republican Congress cannot find time to pass campaign finance reform or a real patients’ bill of rights or a raise to the minimum wage or Medicare reforms or the Hatch-Leahy juvenile justice bill. The long-delayed nominees include Judge Richard Paez -- whose nomination to serve on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has been pending for more than 3 and one-half years -- and the nominations of Justice Ronnie White to be a federal judge in Missouri, Marsha Berzon to be a judge on the Ninth Circuit, Bill Lann Lee to head the Civil Rights Division and scores of other nominees pending before the Senate.

The clemency power is designated by the Constitution to the President. The Senate has already considered the substitute for S.J. Res. 33. Yesterday the Chairman chose to reschedule the hearing to begin earlier than originally set. I was already scheduled to be meeting with the Chief Justice and the other members of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Accordingly, other legislative responsibilities may keep me from attending today’s hearing, but I thank the witnesses for sharing their views with us.