[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.

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