Chuck Schumer

To be a Christian lawyer, I must always remember that laws are made for the benefit of people. People are not made for the benefit of laws.

The 11-member court has three vacancies. It does not even have enough judges for more than two full hearing panels.

I would like to make a brief comment about President Obama's noble and serious efforts to fill vacancies on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

I want to thank Chairman Leahy for being here, Ranking Member Grassley, Senators Franken, Lee, and Cruz for being here as well.

So now let me call on Senator Cochran to introduce the nominee from the Northern District of Mississippi.

Thank you, Senator Kaine, and I know you folks have busy schedules, so if you wish to leave, you may.

Presenting Gregory Howard Woods, Nominee to be District Judge for the Southern District of New York, and Elizabeth A. Wolford, Nominee to be District Judge for the Western District of New York

But you would work for greater transparency provided it does not jeopardize security.

The job of FBI Director is one of the most important jobs in the Nation.

You are more than capable of exercising independent judgment, even out-and-out courage in the face of enormous political and professional pressure.

If it is true that none of the 18 requests for orders last year were denied... how can the American people be assured the FISA Court is exercising real oversight?

An independent arbiter must determine whether these rules are being followed.

My view, when you have the classic conflict of liberty and security, is, first, the debate should be open.

A 10-year appointment is the right amount--not lifetime, too removed; not shorter, too susceptible to whims.

Now, there has always been an age-old struggle between security and liberty.

This would certainly be a chapter.

This is the first time that I have introduced someone the President has referred to as, quote, 'one of the most brilliant economic minds of his generation.'

OK. I think this makes sense. We are working on the ones that require votes. We should be working simultaneously on the ones that are noncontroversial, and let us hope we can come to some agreement so we can all vote on this bill and move…

I thank the Senator from Louisiana, as Senator McCain said, for her continued patience. I think what she proposes makes a great deal of sense. There are a whole lot of amendments--and we did this in committee under Senator Leahy's…

Does the Senator deny that of the 1,000 pages, about 100 pages are new text and the rest is just the old text of the existing bill and that over a weekend every Senator should be able to read 100 pages of important legislation?

Well, I thank the leader for his very kind words. He is a kind man as well as a strong man. I thank him for being my friend, for being a great leader. I will add one additional group to others who thought I could put together a proposal…

We are talking a lot about ways to use benefit design, et cetera, to make markets more competitive.

I tend to have sympathy for the idea that, because people are not paying themselves... the market system does not work in health care.

I do not agree with MedPAC on that issue, as you know.

I am a large defender of our great teaching hospitals in New York.