Political Quotes

“I join Senator Mikulski, as the two Senators from Maryland, in strongly recommending the favorable consideration of Paula Xinis for the district court judgeship of Maryland. I first want to acknowledge the leadership of our senior Senator from Maryland in developing a process in which we screen the very most talented people for opportunities to serve on our Federal bench. This is a professional process that we have gone forward with under Senator Mikulski's leadership in order to try to get the very best on our courts. It is not a partisan issue at all. It is strictly looking for those who have the judicial temperament and experience to be able to be an outstanding member of the bench. We have done that on previous nominations that have been considered on this floor, and Paula Xinis follows in that tradition. I thank Senator Mikulski for the process that we went forward on in making this recommendation to President Obama. I might tell you, President Obama then forwarded the nomination to the Senate in March of last year--in March of 2015. It took 6 months for the Judiciary Committee to make its recommendations to the full floor in September of 2015. It was not a controversial nomination in the committee. The committee reviewed all of Ms. Xinis's background, record, everything that she has done, and on a very strong voice vote brought her forward to the full floor. So this is not a controversial nomination.…”