mr. orrick the opportunity to provide a responsive answer. unfortunately, the answers he provided to my second set of questions were nonanswers. now i understand that this is not unusual for nominees to claim that they are unable to answer a particular question, but i must say that the degree of mr. orrick's nonresponsiveness rose to the level well above what's typically the case with nominees. so the rest of my statement i'm going to put in the record on this nominee, and i am going to urge my colleagues to vote no, but i assume that he will be approved. i want to take a few minutes longer than i just did on that judge to discuss the president's nominee for secretary of labor, tom perez. mr. perez is not unknown to the united states senate, or you might say to the country as a whole now that he has been assistant attorney general for a long time. his tenure as head of the civil rights division has been marked by controversy, and that is, in my words, putting it pretty mildly. he was confirmed to his current post of civil rights under assista