[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 15, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S671]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JORDAN NOMINATION
Mr. NELSON of Florida. Madam President, we are going to vote on Judge
Jordan, a Cuban-American Federal district judge, who has been named by
the President to go to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Jordan came out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously. As
Senator Rubio and I spoke on Monday, the two of us, in a bipartisan
way, do all of the selection of our Federal district judges--and it is
all done in a bipartisan way.
In this case, with Judge Jordan being elevated to the Eleventh
Circuit Court of Appeals--again, done in a bipartisan way and, indeed,
the motion for cloture on the nomination; that is, to stop all debate
on the nomination, was passed at a 5:30 vote Monday afternoon by a vote
of 89 to 5. So at noon today, we are going to vote on the actual
confirmation, which is the second step in the process: after the
President nominates, the Senate confirms. Judge Jordan, by our vote
today--which I expect will be rather overwhelmingly bipartisan--will
ascend to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as the first Hispanic
judge on that Court of Appeals.
I think it is instructive that we could have done all of this Monday
at about 6:00 after the vote had occurred 89 to 5 to cut off debate.
Yet the Senate rules allow even one Senator, if they object--which one
Senator did object--to the waiving of the cloture cutting off debate.
The Senate rules say there can be up to 30 hours of debate before the
matter at hand is voted on.
Of course, with a vote of 89 to 5, it is pretty well determined,
especially since Senator Rubio and I were the ones who were bringing
this judge to the attention of the Senate. Yet here we are.
It is now Wednesday at noon that it is going to take us to get to
this judge. This is illustrative of how the Senate is not working. For
whatever reason, the Senator who objected--which, by the way, it is my
understanding that the Senator had no objection to the judge; it is
some other extraneous matter and, therefore, wanted to slow up and
throw rocks into the gears of the Senate so that what could have been
dispensed with on Monday evening at 6:00 is now taking all the way
until noontime on Wednesday, after the 30 hours have run.
For the Senate to function it has to have a measure of trust among
Senators. It has to be bipartisan. The two leaders have to get along.
In the process, a lot of the work is done by unanimous consent, with
the consent of the two leaders, the Democratic leader and the
Republican leader. But when things get too hyperpartisan or too
ideologically rigid, then that is when the whole process, the mechanism
goes out of kilter. It is just another illustration in this time of an
election cycle for President where things are highly sensitive from a
political, partisan, and ideological standpoint that a judge who is
warmly embraced by both sides for his confirmation is getting held up.
I will close by recalling the reason that Judge Jordan got a vote of
89 to 5: He has had a stellar record as a Federal district judge. He
has, over the course of his career, clerked, when he came out of law
school, for a judge on the Eleventh Circuit. Then he clerked for
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He went back and was an assistant U.S.
attorney, and then went to the bench and has been there for over a
decade.
This is the kind of person we want to have in the judicial branch of
our government.
I commend him on behalf of Senator Rubio. The two of us have been in
a meeting all morning in duties of another committee, the Intelligence
Committee. I commend to the Senate, on behalf of Senator Rubio and me,
Judge Jordan to be confirmed for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.
____________________