[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 25, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S1019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 NOMINATION OF JAMES DONATO TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE 
                    NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of James Donato, 
of California, to be United States District Judge for the Northern 
District of California.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all postcloture time 
is yielded back. There will be 2 minutes of debate equally divided 
between the two leaders or their designees.
  The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, for the benefit of the people of this 
country who have been listening to the complaints in the Senate from 
Senators about not approving judges, let me remind everybody that at 
this point we have approved over 220 judges appointed by this 
President. Only two have been disapproved. That is more than 99 
percent.
  As far as the second term of this administration is concerned, I want 
to say that after the Senate confirms the three district court judges 
we will approve today, we will have confirmed 50 of President Obama's 
judicial nominees during his second term. Up to this point in President 
Bush's second term, the Senate had confirmed only 21. So that is 50 to 
21 as far as the production of this Congress for approving judges.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I have deep respect for my friend the 
senior Senator from Iowa. But he has been listening to himself talk too 
much and he is starting to believe it. Everyone knows we are in this 
situation because the Republicans are slow-walking every nomination--
every nomination. There is no reason, no reason whatsoever, that we are 
having votes on cloture on these judges, as Senator Leahy pointed out 
earlier, reported out unanimously.
  It is a waste of the taxpayers' time to go through the process we 
have been going through. We are going to continue working to move the 
backlog. We have scores of judges, district court judges, and we have a 
number of circuit court judges. We are going to, in the near future, 
file cloture on all of them. If that is what the Republicans want us to 
do, then that is what we will do. The American people will see the 
colossal waste of time we have been going through, not only on district 
court judges but circuit court judges and all nominations.
  I would suggest to my friend the senior Senator from Iowa he not 
believe his own words because they are simply not true.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of James Donato, of California, to be U.S. District Judge for the 
Northern District of California?
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Illinois (Mr. Durbin), the 
Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Florida (Mr. 
Nelson), and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are necessarily 
absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Corker).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Corker) would have voted ``yea.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 5, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 41 Ex.]

                                YEAS--90

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Coats
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Cornyn
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Walsh
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                                NAYS--5

     Blunt
     Crapo
     Risch
     Roberts
     Shelby

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Corker
     Durbin
     Johnson (SD)
     Nelson
     Warner
  The nomination was confirmed.

                          ____________________