Angie Craig: “Certainly, I agree with the Senator from Arizona. There is nothing more important to our country; now that these men and…”

“Certainly, I agree with the Senator from Arizona. There is nothing more important to our country; now that these men and women have gone through their background checks and have been thoroughly vetted and sent to us, we ought to act in the most timely fashion. Where there are objections--there happen to be a few on our side and some on the other side. Let's solve those, bring them to the floor. If a Senator objects, let he or she come to the floor and defend their position. There is nothing wrong with that. I say that for Republicans and Democrats alike. They can express their opposition; they can vote no. There is nothing wrong if you feel passionately about one of the nominees, in telling the President, who happens to be your President: Mr. President, I vote no. Why openly and aggressively deny the President the right to select the people he thinks are necessary to work with him in the governance of this country? I know the Senator went through the list of those key and important individuals still languishing in committee. I understand there are a total of 127 nominees who have had no hearings and no markups, as close as we can determine. There were 48 who came up this month; 46 came up in June; 27 came up in May; 6 came up in April. That is the time that these names have been before the appropriate committees. The question is, where is that chairman? And why can't we hold hearings and give these people an opportunity to testify?”