[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 46 (Wednesday, March 18, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1593-S1594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            LYNCH NOMINATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, this is the Executive Calendar of the U.S. 
Senate. This Executive Calendar tells us the nominations that are 
pending before the U.S. Senate where action is needed. There is one 
name to be found on this calendar on page 4--a name which has been 
sitting on this calendar longer than any nominee for Attorney General 
of the United States of America over the last 30 years. This name has 
been sitting on this calendar for 20 days, which doesn't seem like an 
extraordinarily long period of time. However, it turns out that the 
previous nominees for Attorney General were moved so quickly on this 
Senate calendar that the last five combined, by Democratic and 
Republican Presidents, took less time to be confirmed than this one 
name. What is that name? It is Loretta E. Lynch of New York to be 
Attorney General--a name that was submitted to the U.S. Senate by 
President Barack Obama to make history--a name, a nominee to make 
history. This is the first African-American woman in the history of the 
United States to be nominated to serve as Attorney General. It is a 
civil rights milestone that her name has been submitted.
  I sat through the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, and it was a 
packed room. All the TV cameras were there. Loretta Lynch came and sat 
at the table, with her father behind her, with her family around her, 
with close friends gathered from all over the United States, and this 
woman calmly, in a dignified way, gave the most compelling testimony I 
have heard of any witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee, 
including those who came before us seeking to be appointed to the U.S. 
Supreme Court. She was excellent. No one laid a glove on her. No one 
raised any concern about her nomination. And then, when the public 
witnesses were invited to come in from both the Republican and 
Democratic sides to comment on her nomination, Senator Patrick Leahy of 
Vermont asked all of them gathered: Is there any one of you who opposes 
the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General? Not one. Not 
one.
  Yet, here we are now, with this nomination pending longer than any 
Attorney General nomination in the last 30 years. Why? Why has the 
Senate Republican leadership decided to target this good woman and to 
stop her from serving as the first female African-American Attorney 
General of the United States of America? There is no good reason. There 
is no substantive reason. She has been an extraordinary prosecutor in 
New York. She has the support of so many outstanding organizations. The 
National District Attorneys Association supports Loretta Lynch, as do 
the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the International 
Association of Chiefs of Police, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, 
the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. The FBI Agents Association 
supports Loretta Lynch, and a long list of Republican- and Democratic-
appointed former U.S. Attorneys, including Patrick Fitzgerald from my 
State of Illinois, and former FBI Director Louis Freeh, appointed by a 
Republican President, and Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson from 
the George W. Bush administration. The list goes on and on.
  The fact is there is no substantive reason to stop this nomination. 
The Republican majority leader announced over the weekend that he was 
going to hold this nomination of Loretta Lynch until the bill which is 
pending before the Senate passes, whenever that may be.
  So Loretta Lynch, the first African-American woman nominated to be 
Attorney General, is asked to sit in the back of the bus when it comes 
to the Senate calendar. That is unfair. It is unjust. It is beneath the 
decorum and dignity of the U.S. Senate.
  This woman deserves fairness. She seeks to lead the Department of 
Justice, and the U.S. Senate should be just in its treatment of her 
nomination. To think that we would jeopardize her opportunity to serve 
this Nation and to make history is fundamentally unfair.
  What is the issue? The issue is this important bill. It is a bill 
which relates to human trafficking. As chairman of the constitution 
subcommittee, I have held hearings on this subject and it is 
heartbreaking to hear how primarily young women have been enslaved and 
exploited not just around the world but in the United States. I support 
this legislation. I think we should move it forward. What is holding 
this up is very simple: one sentence. Out of a 112-page bill, there is 
1 sentence on pages 50 and 51 that relates to the issue of abortion.
  I needn't tell anyone following this debate how controversial and 
divisive that issue can be and has been for so many decades in the 
United States. The fact is that issue has nothing to do with human 
trafficking. It should be debated at another moment, another time, on 
another bill. But, sadly, this 1 sentence in this 100-page bill is 
holding it up from being considered on the floor.
  If the senior Senator from Texas, who is the lead sponsor on this 
bill, would come to the floor and simply remove this one sentence, this 
bill would pass. It would pass this afternoon, overwhelmingly. There is 
no question about it. He knows it. We have told him that. We have 
offered that to him, but he refuses.

[[Page S1594]]

  So this good bill language is on the calendar, the Senate is mired in 
controversy, and Loretta Lynch sits on the calendar for another day.
  It has been 130 days since President Obama announced the nomination 
of this woman to serve as our Attorney General. That is more than three 
times the period of time it took for us to confirm Attorney General 
Ashcroft. It is more than 2\1/2\ times as long as it took to confirm 
Attorney General Mukasey and twice as long as it took to confirm 
Attorney General Holder.
  It is time for us to give Loretta Lynch an opportunity to continue to 
serve America and to make civil rights history by allowing this 
African-American woman to step forward and serve. It is time to stop 
holding her hostage to a political debate on the floor of the U.S. 
Senate that has nothing to do with her obvious qualifications to serve 
this Nation.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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