[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5209-S5211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                             CLOTURE MOTION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session and, pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays 
before the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will 
state.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of 
     Jill A. Pryor, of Georgia, to be United State Circuit Judge 
     for the Eleventh Circuit.
         Harry Reid, Patrick J. Leahy, Christopher A. Coons, 
           Sheldon Whitehouse, Patty Murray, Amy Klobuchar, Maria 
           Cantwell, Jack Reed, Bill Nelson, Elizabeth Warren, Tom 
           Udall, Mazie K. Hirono, Richard Blumenthal, Barbara 
           Boxer, Tom Harkin, Benjamin L. Cardin, Charles E. 
           Schumer.

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, for the fifth year in a row, more than a 
dozen qualified, consensus judicial nominees pending before the full 
Senate will remain on the Executive Calendar during the August recess. 
Each year, I have come before the Senate to remind my fellow Senators 
that their refusal to take action on these nominations prior to the 
August recess is an unfortunate departure from Senate tradition and to 
urge them to stop their obstructive practices and delay tactics. Again, 
I am disappointed to see partisanship and senseless obstruction

[[Page S5210]]

continue to keep the Senate from fulfilling its constitutional duty of 
advice and consent.
  We could be voting today to confirm 13 nominees to serve on our 
Federal courts, 12 of whom were reported favorably by the Senate 
Judiciary Committee by unanimous voice vote. Instead, we are voting to 
invoke cloture on only one nomination, that of Jill Pryor, to fill a 
judicial emergency vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
Eleventh Circuit. She has received the American Bar Association's 
highest rating of unanimously ``well qualified'' and has the support of 
both of her Republican home State Senators. She will no doubt be 
confirmed unanimously, or near unanimously, when we return in 
September. As the senior Senator from Georgia, Mr. Chambliss, noted at 
her confirmation hearing, ``Jill Pryor has been in private practice in 
Atlanta for nearly 25 years. During that time she has played a pivotal 
role in some of the largest and most complex cases in Georgia 
history.'' We have before us an outstanding candidate to serve on the 
Federal bench. Yet her nomination is being filibustered by Senate 
Republicans who are delaying her vote for the sake of obstruction.
  Despite this unyielding and irrational partisan strategy, the Senate 
has made great strides to fill vacancies on courts around the Nation by 
confirming 61 circuit and district court nominees this year. I have 
heard some Republican Senators point to these confirmations to claim 
that today's Senate is treating judicial nominees fairly. These 
Senators overlook an important truth: This progress was made because of 
the persistent dedication of the majority leader and Democratic 
Senators to confront vacancies on the Federal bench and despite the 
unprecedented levels of opposition and obstruction from Republican 
Senators.
  Because of our Democratic leadership in the Senate, there are now 
fewer vacancies on the Federal courts than at any time since January 
2009. Since the beginning of this year, we have reduced the vacancies 
on our Federal courts by over a third, from 92 to 57, and reduced the 
number of judicial emergency vacancies by nearly half, from 37 to 19. 
There are now only eight vacancies on the U.S. courts of appeals. Not 
since December 1990--over 23 years ago--have there been so few. This is 
real progress for the millions of Americans who depend on our courts 
for justice.
  Many of these confirmations were of nominees to courts that began the 
year with record-high numbers of vacancies. In Arizona, I worked with 
Senator McCain and Senator Flake to confirm six nominees to fill 
judicial emergency vacancies on their district court. In Florida, I 
worked with Senator Nelson and Senator Rubio to confirm seven nominees 
to fill judicial emergency vacancies in the Southern and Middle 
Districts of Florida as well as on the Eleventh Circuit. These States 
are success stories, and the people of Arizona and Florida are better 
served for having trial and appellate judges ready to hear their cases.
  No Senator should believe, however, that our work is done. There are 
13 judicial nominees pending on the Senate floor who should be 
confirmed without delay. Yet, even if the Senate were to confirm these 
nominees today, the Federal judiciary would remain understaffed. In 
addition to the 57 current vacancies, the Judicial Conference has 
identified the need for 91 new judgeships in some of America's judicial 
districts and circuits with the most burdensome caseloads. Last year, 
Senator Coons and I introduced the Federal Judgeship Act of 2013 to 
enact these recommendations into law. The timely administration of 
justice should not be a partisan issue. It is an issue that affects all 
Americans and the Senate should take it seriously by passing this bill.
  The recommendations of the Judicial Conference only underscore how, 
despite the 61 judicial confirmations so far in 2014, the Senate 
continues to fall short of its obligations to the Federal judiciary and 
the American people. I have heard some Republican Senators claim the 
opposite by citing the total judicial confirmation figures of current 
and former Presidents. It is true that the Senate has now confirmed 277 
of President Obama's circuit, district, and U.S. Court of International 
Trade nominees, compared to 253 confirmations at the same point in the 
last administration. Yet these numbers are meaningless without 
providing their proper context. These confirmations were sorely needed. 
There remain 57 vacancies on the Federal bench--far more than the 42 
vacancies at this point during the Bush administration. There are an 
additional 24 announced future vacancies on our Federal courts that 
will also need to be filled in the coming months.
  Vacancies remain high not because of a failure of Senate Democrats or 
President Obama to make judicial confirmations a priority; Americans 
seeking justice around the country face delays because of the endless 
obstruction of partisan Republicans who take every opportunity they can 
to shut down the important work of the Senate. Last year, no longer 
content to block individual judges, Senate Republicans attempted a 
wholesale filibuster of three nominees to the DC Circuit, without even 
considering their qualifications. Then, instead of confirming the 
consensus judicial nominees pending on the Executive Calendar prior to 
the end of the congressional session, Republicans forced the President 
to renominate each nominee and the Senate Judiciary Committee to report 
them again this year.
  This year, Senate Republicans have proceeded to filibuster each and 
every judicial nominee. After today, the Senate will have taken 62 
cloture votes on judicial nominations so far this year, amounting to 
well over 400 wasted hours the Senate should have spent considering 
legislation to help the American people. Never before has the Senate 
seen the systematic filibuster of every judicial nominee, or such 
unfair treatment of qualified, consensus nominees.
  The result of these tactics has been high vacancy levels on the 
Federal courts. The implications of these vacancies were made clear by 
a recent Brennan Center for Justice paper titled ``The Impact of 
Judicial Vacancies on Federal Trial Courts.'' In it, judges and 
attorneys in districts with high levels of vacancies describe the way 
empty court rooms slow the administration of justice, ``raise the cost 
of litigation, cause evidence to go stale, make it harder to settle 
civil cases, and even put pressure on criminal defendants to plead 
guilty.'' Chief Judge Leonard Davis in the Eastern District of Texas 
said the impact of vacancies comes down to ``simple math.'' Vacancies 
lead to heavier caseloads and judges ``have less time to give to [an 
individual] case . . . It affects the quality of justice that's being 
dispensed and the quantity of work you can complete.''
  The incredible burden facing Federal courts in Texas is 
understandable with its nine current district court vacancies--more 
than any other State. Therefore, I hope that Republicans on the 
Judiciary Committee, including both Senators from Texas, will be ready 
to proceed with a hearing on the three pending Texas district court 
nominees as soon as the Senate returns to session in September. I also 
hope that the Texas Senators will continue to work with the 
administration on nominees to fill the six other current district 
vacancies in their State as well as the four known future district 
court vacancies.
  The continued high number of vacancies across our Federal courts is 
unacceptable to me and should be unacceptable to every Member of this 
body. The Senate should act quickly to confirm the consensus nominees 
pending on the Senate floor. The Senate should also pass the Federal 
Judgeship Act of 2013 to ensure that our coequal branch of government 
has the resources it needs to serve its constitutionally mandated 
function.
  I am glad that we are voting to overcome the Republican filibuster of 
the nomination of Jill Pryor, and I thank the majority leader for 
taking action on her nomination. If the Senate were operating as it 
once did, without this partisan treatment of judicial nominations, she 
would have been confirmed weeks ago.
  I hope that in the weeks following the August recess Senators will 
start working together to continue the progress we have made so far in 
2014. The American people deserve courts capable of providing access to 
swift justice, not empty courtrooms and delays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.

[[Page S5211]]

  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
nomination of Jill A. Pryor, of Georgia, to be United States Circuit 
Judge for the Eleventh Circuit, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN, I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mrs. 
Hagan), the Senator from Iowa (Mr. Harkin), and the Senator from Hawaii 
(Mr. Schatz) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. 
Cochran), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Kansas 
(Mr. Roberts), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), and the 
Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``nay'' and the Senator from Texas (Mr. 
Cornyn) would have voted ``nay.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 58, nays 33, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 256 Ex.]

                                YEAS--58

     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boxer
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Collins
     Coons
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Isakson
     Johnson (SD)
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Walsh
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--33

     Barrasso
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Coats
     Coburn
     Corker
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Enzi
     Flake
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Johanns
     Johnson (WI)
     Kirk
     Lee
     McCain
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Rubio
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Thune
     Vitter
     Wicker

                             NOT VOTING--9

     Alexander
     Cochran
     Cornyn
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Roberts
     Schatz
     Scott
     Toomey
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote the yeas are 58, the nays are 33. 
The motion is agreed to.

                          ____________________