The Governor of Maryland nominated a successor to a state official whose appointment to the Justice Department Civil Rights Division remains stalled in the Senate, according to a news release from the governor’s office.
Tom Perez (maryland.gov)
Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) tapped Alex Sanchez, a senior vice president at United Way of America, to replace DOJ nominee Thomas Perez as the secretary of labor, licensing and regulation. President Obama nominated Perez on March 31 to lead the Civil Rights Division.
Senate leaders have yet to schedule a vote on the Perez nomination. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told Main Justice last week that he has put a hold on the nominee. The Senate Judiciary Committee member said he has questions for the Justice Department that have not been answered yet.
Coburn said in June that Perez, former director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has supported providing translators to illegal immigrants who are receiving medical care. The Oklahoma senator, a medical doctor who operated on people without U.S. citizenship, said providing illegal immigrants with interpreters would “wreck health care.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in June questioned Perez’s prior work on the board of CASA de Maryland, an influential immigrant advocacy group that has come under fire by anti-immigration groups.
Perez was reported out of committee June 4 by a 17-2 vote. Coburn and Sessions were the only senators to oppose the Civil Rights Division nominee in committee.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) has also asked Senate Republicans to hold up Perez until DOJ gives the House member more information about the dismissal of voter-intimidation charges against members of the militant New Black Panthers.
