On the recordMay 10, 2016
there are publications given to us on the floor of the Senate. One of them is the Executive Calendar. This Executive Calendar and parts of it may be characterized as a political obituary column because, you see, these are the nominees of the Obama administration for important posts across America--the names on here--and many of them have been sitting for months and some for over a year, and they are waiting for Senate action. So far this Congress we have approved 17 Federal judges--2 circuit court judges, and 15 district court judges. There are 20 judicial nominees still sitting on this calendar. You think to yourself: Well, they must be pretty controversial if they are still sitting on the calendar. Every single one of them was reported unanimously from the Senate Judiciary Committee. There were no dissenting votes, no objections. Still they just sit and sit and sit on the calendar. Why? Well, we know we have a serious problem with not just these 20, but there is the fact that we have 87 vacancies in the Federal judiciary, many of them in an emergency situation. Why? Why in the world would some of these nominees, some of whom have been supported by Republican Senators--why aren't they being called for a vote, a routine vote on the floor of the Senate? It is part of the obstruction that the Republican Party has decided to make part of their leadership in the Senate. And, of course, exhibit A in that obstruction is the vacancy on the U.S.…
