Political Quotes

“as the Senate prepares to adjourn for the Memorial Day recess, I had hoped that we would be allowed to proceed with the consensus judicial nominees ready for confirmation and who are so needed to fill vacancies on Federal courts around the country. Instead, the Republican leadership's filibuster of the nomination of Goodwin Liu is being supplemented with delays of even those judicial nominations supported by Republican home State Senators and approved by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is too bad. With judicial vacancies continuing at crisis levels, affecting the ability of courts to provide justice to Americans around the country, I have been urging the Senate to vote on the judicial nominations reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee and pending on the Senate's Executive Calendar. The Senate is recessing with 19 judicial nominations awaiting final action. Of those, 16 are by anyone's definition consensus nominees. All 16 were unanimously approved by all Republican and all Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee. Yet they remain stalled without final Senate action. We should have regular votes on President Obama's highly qualified nominees, instead of partisan filibusters and more delays. With vacancies still totaling 90 on Federal courts throughout the country with nearly two dozen future vacancies on the horizon, there is no time to delay taking up these nominations.…”