May 7, 2013 - NHLA Chair in Politico: Senators should stop stalling on Tom Perez

The op-ed below was originally published in Politico on May 7, 2013.

On April 25, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions was supposed to vote on the nomination of Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez to serve as secretary of labor, but the vote didn’t happen. In a conciliatory move, the committee’s chairman, Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, acceded to demands from nine of the committee’s 10 Republicans that the vote be delayed so they could continue a fishing expedition by requesting more documents, even though Perez has already provided more than 1,400 documents.

Perhaps this request was reasonable and not just another congressional sideshow. Either way, the Senate should know that the Latino community is closely watching these tactics and, when the HELP Committee reconvenes on Wednesday to vote on Perez’s nomination, we hope those senators who requested a delay will be satisfied that Perez is well qualified to serve.

There is no reason why they shouldn’t reach that conclusion. When Perez took up his post as head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in 2009, he inherited an organization that, according to a 2009 report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, was found to have engaged in illegal hiring practices and to be plagued by a demoralized staff. Another IG report, this one issued weeks ago, confirmed that since then Perez has put in place reforms to return to merit-based hiring and to improve morale.

At the same time, Perez impressively increased the division’s productivity, settling the largest Fair Housing Act cases in history, providing more than $600 million to victims of unfair lending practices. He increased prosecutions of human trafficking by 40 percent over four years as well as of hate crimes and of abuse of power by law enforcement. Under his leadership, more new voting-rights cases were handled than at any time in the past 35 years. And he stood up for our men and women in uniform, recovering $50 million for service members whose homes were wrongfully foreclosed on while their owners served overseas.

In turning around the Civil Rights Division while simultaneously increasing its achievements, Tom Perez proved that he has the talent, energy and skill to lead at the highest levels.

Despite Perez’s distinguished career of public service, some in Congress are intent on tarnishing his name with accusations that don’t stand up to the light of day. House Republicans on the Government Reform Committee scheduled a hearing on the eve of Perez’s Senate committee vote to rehash a fair housing case that had already been thoroughly discussed at his confirmation hearing and found to involve no wrongdoing. Some have tried to blame him for the politicization of the Civil Rights Division — a situation created before he got there and that he has worked to fix. Some even blame him for the Obama administration’s decision to dismiss charges in the New Black Panther Case — a decision that was made before Perez was even confirmed to his post.

These accusations are so absurd they would be funny if it weren’t for the fact that they’re holding up the confirmation of a distinguished nominee. On Wednesday, the committee will vote, and then the full Senate should have its turn the following week. These steps should proceed without further delay.

Using additional frivolous tactics like requests for information would simply be a filibuster by another name. Some senators will never want to vote for Perez and that’s their right. But they should not stand in the way of letting the rest of the Senate hold an up-or-down vote on his nomination.

The Latino community is proud of Perez’s achievements and wants to see him take his seat at the president’s Cabinet table because we know he will be a strong voice for all working families across the nation and those who want a decent job. We want our labor secretary to be Tom Perez — without further delay.

Hector Sanchez is chairman of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda and executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.