Political Quotes

“Mr. President, for the last 4 months, the Senate has been forced to slowly work its way through the backlog created by Republican objections at the end of last year to consensus nominees. Finally, with consideration today of the long-delayed nomination of Judge Nguyen to fill a longstanding judicial emergency vacancy on the overburdened Ninth Circuit, the Senate will have completed the confirmations that could and should have taken place last year. Today, 5 months into the year, is the first time the Senate is considering judicial nominations reported by the Judiciary Committee this year. Confirmations of the nominations of Kristine Baker to fill a judicial emergency vacancy in the Eastern District of Arkansas and John Lee to fill a judicial emergency vacancy in the Northern District of Illinois have been delayed for nearly 3 months. These nominees have the support of their home state Senators and of a bipartisan majority of the Judiciary Committee. Yet these consensus nominees have been delayed for months for no good reason. The nominations we consider today are but three of the 22 judicial nominees available for final Senate action. Most are by any measure consensus nominees who could and should be confirmed without further delay. That would go a long way toward getting us on track to make real progress in reducing judicial vacancies that have plagued the Federal courts around the country.…”