Chris Van Hollen: “I would just say that based on what I said in my earlier remarks, I have not heard and the body has not heard of any…”

“I would just say that based on what I said in my earlier remarks, I have not heard and the body has not heard of any good reason to be blocking these judges for the District of Columbia, have not heard one substantive objection to any of these individuals, have not heard any other rationale for why we are not going to act on these judges right away. As I indicated, the result of inaction in blocking these judges is just to back up the entire court system of the District of Columbia-- criminal cases, civil cases. It makes no sense. If someone was looking out on the Senate right now, they would see this as one of the many examples of complete dysfunction because of the kind of obstruction based on who knows what rationale for doing the right thing for the District of Columbia. This is just one reason why many of us support statehood for the people of the District of Columbia. They shouldn't have to have the U.S. Senate sign off on their judicial nominations, just as we don't sign off on judicial nominations for State courts, whether it be the State of Wisconsin or my State of Maryland. We don't sign off on nominations for local courts in our States, but we do have that power for now and responsibility for now in the U.S. Senate, and this is just an example of total failure to live up to our responsibility to make sure there is a functioning court system in the District of Columbia.…”