Today, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, spoke in support of Tom Perez and his strong record of reform and leadership at the helm of the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.  At a Judiciary hearing entitled, “Mismanagement at the Civil Right Division of the Department of Justice,” Nadler disputed the hearing title and defended the work of Perez and his Division.

“Assistant Attorney General Perez has worked quickly and effectively to address the wrongs that he inherited when he took the helm of the Civil Rights Division,” said Nadler.  “He should be thanked for his service and we should all look forward to his stewardship as Secretary of Labor.  As to the Civil Rights Division, this Committee should stop chasing the unsubstantiated allegations of political activists whose prior claims repeatedly have been proven false only after the expenditure of tremendous resources and taxpayer dollars.  It is long past time to end the smear campaign against the Obama Administration’s Civil Rights Division and allow its devoted employees to spend their full time and energy enforcing this nation’s laws.” 

Below is the complete text of Nadler’s statement at the hearing:

“This hearing is not about legitimate oversight of the Civil Rights Division.  That is perfectly clear from its inflammatory title, its timing, and the invitation of two witnesses with long histories of leveling unfounded partisan claims against this Administration’s Civil Rights Division.  Any serious oversight effort would have included the Office of Inspector General, whose report is the alleged subject of this hearing, and from a representative of the Department of Justice.  Apparently, however, scheduling to ensure their presence would interfere with efforts to tarnish Attorney General Perez’s leadership on the eve of his Senate confirmation hearing as President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor.   

“Instead, we get two witnesses who were very much part of the problem in the last administration.  Mr. von Spakovsky was Counsel to the Civil Rights Division when its leadership was breaking the law by politicizing hiring and personnel practices.  Mr. Adams misrepresented facts when testifying before the Civil Rights Commission to bolster his allegation that the Division is hostile to race-neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.  As the OIG report that we examine today found, ‘polarization and suspicion in the Voting Rights Section became particularly acute during the period from 2003 to 2007,’ which is the timeframe during which these two witnesses served the Division.  And their ongoing posting on the internet of confidential or deliberative Voting Section information – information that they apparently receive from current employees – continues to foment partisan rancor and calls into serious question the legitimacy and credibility of their assertions today.     

“We unquestionably will hear plenty of heated rhetoric and baseless allegations of mismanagement by the current Administration from these witnesses today.  But the actual evidence paints a very different picture.  It shows that Assistant Attorney General Perez is an effective leader who has restored professionalism, integrity, and effective civil rights enforcement to the Civil Rights Division.   

“Under his leadership, the Division has increased enforcement efforts and obtained unprecedented monetary and policy settlements across a broad range of substantive areas.  For example, his Division obtained $660 million in settlements of lending discrimination lawsuits.  It brought several cases to enforce the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision and ensure that Americans with disabilities are not left languishing in large institutions.  His Division increased the number of human trafficking cases by 40 percent over the prior four-year period, and convicted nearly 75 percent more defendants in hate crime cases.  It acted aggressively to protect the rights of military members, working to eliminate discrimination in housing and lending and to ensure the voting rights of our men and women serving overseas. 

“This is not mismanagement.  It is effective leadership.  And that is exactly why Assistant AG Perez has been targeted for criticism in this hearing and elsewhere.  Those who do not share his commitment to enforcing this nation’s civil rights laws are unquestionably unhappy with him.  But there is no legitimate legal, ethical, or professional responsibility basis for their complaints.  Rather, this is partisan politics, plain and simple.

“This hearing, and the Inspector General Report of the Voting Rights Section upon which it rests, are stark confirmation of this fact.  The 258-page OIG report finds absolutely no evidence that this Administration – and, more specifically, Assistant Attorney General Perez – has made hiring, personnel, or law enforcement decisions for racial or political reasons.  Yet, even in the face of the facts, my colleagues and the panelists that they have invited to be here today continue to allege otherwise.

“There is no question that the Obama Administration inherited a Voting Rights Section in crisis.  A prior 2008 joint Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility report documented unlawful misconduct of political appointees in the Bush Administration who – from 2003 through 2007 – made personnel and hiring decisions in an aggressive effort to pack the Section with employees who shared their political ideology.  During this time, 31 trial lawyers left the section, including many experienced trial attorneys.  Workplace culture and employee morale was damaged.  Perhaps unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the troubling and unacceptable incidents of workplace harassment recounted in the Inspector General report that we examine today came during this timeframe.  Yet problems that may have been fostered and that took place prior to Assistant Attorney General Perez’s leadership of the Division will go largely unexamined by my colleagues. 

“As the recent OIG report confirms, however, Assistant Attorney General Perez made several changes to ensure that the problems recounted in the OIG report remain in the past.  These reforms are working, with the OIG report confirming that there was no evidence that recent hiring was influenced by political or ideological bias.  Career and merit-based hiring has been restored so that politics and ideology no longer have any place in the hiring of individuals entrusted with enforcing our nation’s civil rights laws.  While broader efforts to restore a workplace culture of respect, collegiality, and professionalism will unquestionably take time, those efforts are ongoing and appear to be taking hold.  

“Assistant Attorney General Perez has worked quickly and effectively to address the wrongs that he inherited when he took the helm of the Civil Rights Division.  He should be thanked for his service and we should all look forward to his stewardship as Secretary of Labor.  As to the Civil Rights Division, this Committee should stop chasing the unsubstantiated allegations of political activists whose prior claims repeatedly have been proven false only after the expenditure of tremendous resources and taxpayer dollars.  It is long past time to end the smear campaign against the Obama Administration’s Civil Rights Division and allow its devoted employees to spend their full time and energy enforcing this nation’s laws.” 

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