Xavier Becerra: “let me begin first by thanking the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) for yielding me some time and for taking this…”

“let me begin first by thanking the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez) for yielding me some time and for taking this opportunity to speak on a very important issue which oftentimes, given the crush of the agenda here in Washington, D.C., potential war with Iraq, potential war with North Korea, with a growing budget deficit that is now surpassing $200 billion for this year and we thought we were going to be looking at budget surpluses, the fact that more and more Americans are losing their jobs, the fact that we have more than 42 million Americans today that are without health insurance, the fact that in almost every State in the Union, Governors are talking about having to cut back on what they will do for schools, and as a father with three little girls, all of those things have to concern us. They certainly concern me. So without putting aside those very important issues, I believe that it is important this evening to talk a little bit about another very important role that Congress plays with regard to the Nation's life; and, that is, helping select the lifetime appointees to our Federal courts.”