Chuck Schumer

I want to thank every witness for coming, but particularly extend a welcome to two of New York's greatest public servants, Mayor Bloomberg and District Attorney Morgenthau.

The case for Judge Sotomayor's confirmation is built on her vast experience, keen intellect, and tremendous qualifications.

Your fidelity is first and foremost to the rule of law

I think you have made a great impression on America today.

You found rule of law on the other side and you sided with rule of law.

I do not think she would adopt the Red Sox as her team.

The appropriate remedial scheme for deaths occurring off the United States coast is clearly a legislative policy choice which should not be made by the courts.

And you have never relied on a foreign court to interpret U.S. law nor would you.

The only point I am making here, if some are seeking to suggest that your empathy or sympathy overrules rule of law, this is a pretty good body of law to look at.

Judge Sotomayor's story is a great American story and, I might add, a great New York story as well.

Today is a great national opportunity. It's an opportunity to recognize that the nomination of one of the most qualified candidates to the Supreme Court in American history could not have happened anywhere else in the world.

Judge Sotomayor has stellar credentials. There's no question about that.

Judge Sotomayor puts rule of law above everything else.

Three decades of jurisprudence and the centrality of First Amendment freedom in our lives.

We in New York are so proud of you and to your whole family, who I know are exceptionally proud to be here today to support this historic nomination.

Permitted, but is it part of the process?

Could you please? Yes, and get back to me. On all of these, if you could get back to me in writing--within 5 days, is that OK? A week?

But anyone who calls with an actual complaint or whatever will be given a call back.

I think the SEC should move to New York City, at least the Enforcement Division as a whole. I do. I think it would do a much, much better job.

Do you think this is sufficient in protecting our markets? Or do you think the SEC should also have investigative powers over currently unregulated entities--hedge funds and unregulated products like credit default swaps--to ensure the…

That is why Senator Shelby and I introduced the Safe Markets Act, to give the Enforcement Division the additional resources it needs.

The SEC, known as 'the gem of the financial regulatory world' a long time ago, and the SEC's police, your Division, the Enforcement Division, was its public face and its iron fist.

So who receives the calls--I mean, again, they are all referred or triaged----

I fought so hard for an amendment to the Fraud Enforcement Act on the floor last month to ensure that the SEC get the funding it desperately needs.

I think there has been too much of a reliance on lawyers--I am not against lawyers; I am one--and not enough on the investigative type people who have had experience in the financial world.