[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 58 (Thursday, May 5, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           JUDICIAL NOMINEES

  (Mrs. BLACKBURN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, before we all leave town for the weekend 
and to celebrate Mother's Day, I wanted to say just a little bit about 
the President's judicial nominees. They deserve an up-or-down vote in 
the Senate. That really is a matter of common sense here in Washington 
and something that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, right now, 
common sense does not seem to be prevailing.
  For more than 200 years, the Senate deliberated and voted on judicial 
nominees that were sent up by the President. During those 200 years, 
the process has not been circumvented by a minority political party in 
the Senate. Yet today we have a first--judicial nominees that are being 
held hostage by misuse of a rule preventing the full Senate from voting 
either to accept or to reject them.
  Mr. Speaker, it is not fair, it is not right, and it is not in 
keeping with our system. The liberals over in the Senate know this. 
Yes, the Constitution grants the Senate the ability to make its own 
rules on procedure, but to twist that right in order to subvert the 
Senate's constitutional role is wholly inappropriate.

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