[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 19, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2133-S2135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING ANNIVERSARY AND NOMINATION OF MERRICK GARLAND
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today we are going to remember the victims
and families whose lives were forever changed by the bombing in
Oklahoma City 21 years ago. This homegrown terrorist attack--this
bombing shook our Nation to its core. In fact, it remains the worst act
of homegrown terrorism our Nation has endured.
The destruction and the loss of life were overwhelming. This
photograph I have never forgotten. The firefighter is carrying the limp
and bloodied body of a toddler from the wreckage. Those of us who are
parents and grandparents know the joy we have had in caring for
children this age. You can only imagine the sadness of that
firefighter. It symbolized the horror of the attack: 168 innocent lives
perished that day; 19 of them were children.
The impact, of course, and the loss in the Oklahoma City community
was enormous. Nearly everyone knew someone who had lost a friend or
family member. The city's emergency services and their victims support
resources were quickly overwhelmed. As the days went by and the needs
mounted, it became clear that the existing State and Federal resources
were simply insufficient to respond to such a massive attack.
So to respond to the victims' needs, I proposed, and Congress passed,
the Victims of Terrorism Act of 1995. Among important matters, the
legislation I wrote created an emergency reserve as part of the Crime
Victims Fund to serve as an emergency resource in the wake of an act of
terrorism or mass violence. Even though every one of us, Republicans
and Democrats alike,
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prayed there would never be such another act, we had, in my
legislation, an emergency reserve, because without such a fund, State
victim compensation and assistance programs are quickly overwhelmed.
This new fund was critical to ensuring that additional resources got to
the field quickly.
Over the last two decades, this fund has been instrumental in
allowing the Federal government to immediately respond to the victims
of other unspeakable acts of mass violence, including the 9/11
terrorist attack and more recently, the domestic terror attack in the
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South
Carolina.
Last month I met with the former Federal prosecutor who managed the
investigation and the prosecutions of the Oklahoma City bombers. We
talked about the prosecution. That former prosecutor was Chief Judge
Merrick Garland. He was nominated to the Supreme Court last month. But
before he was a judge and a nominee to serve on the highest Court in
the land, he was a prosecutor and a senior official at the Justice
Department. Those of us who have had the privilege of being
prosecutors, none of us could ever think of facing what he did.
Immediately after hearing the news of the devastation in Oklahoma
City, Merrick Garland turned to the Deputy Attorney General. He said,
very simply: ``You need to send me there.'' The next day, Merrick
Garland became the highest ranking Department of Justice official on
the ground in Oklahoma City after the bombing. He helped to oversee
every aspect of the criminal investigation and response. Years later,
he still considers his work in Oklahoma City the most important in his
life.
Chief Judge Garland's commitment to fairness during that difficult
period and his work with the citizens of Oklahoma City were formative
for him. I know from talking with him that it left a lasting impression
on him, but it left especially a lasting impression on the people he
served.
Last year, the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum honored
Merrick Garland with a Reflections of Hope Award for his work on behalf
of victims. After his nomination to the Supreme Court last month, the
Oklahoma museum's Executive Director said: ``We are so proud that Judge
Garland, who kept the family members and survivors front and center
during his work in Oklahoma City, has been nominated.''
We have also heard from a team of former prosecutors, law enforcement
agents, and victims' advocates who worked directly with Chief Judge
Garland in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing. They have
written to the leadership of the Senate and the Judiciary Committee to
highlight Chief Judge Garland's work on this terrorism case. They
strongly support his nomination to the Supreme Court. The law
enforcement team writes of Chief Judge Garland:
Twenty years ago, the nation could not find a better lawyer
to manage the investigation and prosecution of what was then
the worse crime ever committed on American soil. Today, our
nation could not find a better judge, nor a more honorable
man, to join its highest court.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
the letter highlighting Chief Judge Garland's work on the Oklahoma City
bombing.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
April 19, 2016.
Hon. Mitch McConnell,
Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Harry Reid,
Minority Leader, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Charles E. Grassley,
Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Patrick J. Leahy,
Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Reid,
Chairman Grassley, and Ranking Member Leahy: As former
prosecutors, law enforcement agents and victim advocates who
worked as a team with Merrick Garland, as well as state and
local authorities, to secure justice for the thousands of
victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, we write to offer our
enthusiastic support for Chief Judge Garland to serve on the
Supreme Court of the United States.
We are a diverse group: we live in different parts of the
country and work in a variety of fields, we have no common
political affiliation, and indeed some of us are occasionally
adversaries in court. But despite those differences we are
united today, as we were united two decades ago, in our
respect and admiration for the integrity, brilliance,
leadership, and judgment of Merrick Garland. Twenty years
ago, the nation could not find a better lawyer to manage the
investigation and prosecution of what was then the worst
crime ever committed on American soil. Today, our nation
could not find a better judge, nor a more honorable man, to
join its highest court.
On April 19, 1995, while first responders were still
searching for the injured and the dead in the ruins of the
Alfred J. Murrah Federal Building, Merrick Garland worked
with the folks on the ground to provide the best federal
resources, personnel and counsel to assist with the
investigation and prosecutions. He knew that the best thing
he could do was to leave Washington and travel to Oklahoma
City to ensure that the investigators, the prosecutors, the
victims and the survivors had the full support of the Justice
Department. He arrived to find the largest and most complex
crime scene anyone in American law enforcement had ever
encountered. He helped to ensure that the many different
local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies worked
together as a team, despite their sometimes differing ideas
about how best to build a case. At the same time, he made
sure the victims, the survivors and their families had the
critical resources they needed to deal with the unspeakable
losses they had suffered.
Once the two men responsible for the bombing had been
identified and arrested, Judge Garland was careful to ensure
that each was treated fairly and with dignity to ensure that
no one could reasonably accuse the government of a rush to
judgment. He meticulously oversaw every step of the
prosecution's initial proceedings, building an overwhelming
case and ensuring that no legal error would allow the bombers
to escape responsibility for their atrocity. And with the
victims' families and the nation desperate for information
and justice, Judge Garland ensured that they would have both.
After the case was on a sound footing, Judge Garland
returned to his critical responsibilities at the Justice
Department, but maintained close contact with the rest of us
who continued to work on the case. With his towering
intellect, exceptionally sound judgment, and extraordinary
decency, he provided the leadership and wise counsel that
helped us face both novel legal issues in the courtroom and
unprecedented challenges in supporting a community of victims
that numbered in the thousands.
On a personal level, we all benefitted from having Judge
Garland in our corner. For some of us, the bombing had ripped
through our home town and killed and wounded neighbors and
colleagues; for the rest of us who came to the task force
from across the country, the case required many months away
from friends and family. For all of us, working to secure
justice for the victims and to reassure the nation that our
judicial system could respond fairly but forcefully to such
an act of domestic terrorism, the pressure to get it right
was unyielding--and Judge Garland's support was critical. He
was not just a supervisor; he was a mentor, a counselor, and
a friend.
From the day of the Oklahoma City bombing until his
judicial appointment at the start of the first of the trials,
Merrick Garland provided our team with leadership,
confidence, determination, and hope. If confirmed, he will
bring to the Supreme Court the same humanity, talent, and
judgment that we have seen in him for two decades. We
unconditionally support his nomination and urge you to
support his confirmation as an Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court.
Very truly yours,
Donna Bucella; Vicki Zemp Behenna; Sean Connelly; David
Chipman; Aitan Goelman; Jamie Gorelick; Joseph
Hartzler; Carolyn Hightower; Arlene Johnson; Wan Kim;
Larry Mackey; Scott Mendeloff; James Orenstein; Patrick
Ryan; Beth Wilkinson.
Mr. LEAHY. The American people need to know that it is this dedicated
public servant who is now being denied a public hearing by Senate
Republicans. No nominee to the Supreme Court has ever been treated the
way Senate Republicans are treating Chief Judge Garland. Since public
confirmation hearings began in 1916, the Senate has never denied a
Supreme Court nominee a hearing and a vote. I say to my friends the
Republicans, you have no good reason for your obstruction of Merrick
Garland.
Americans by a 2-to-1 margin want Chief Judge Garland to have a
public hearing in the Judiciary Committee. Based on more than four
decades of that precedent, that hearing should take place in the
Judiciary Committee next week. Instead, Senate Republicans continue to
ignore the American people.
Neil Siegel, a law professor at Duke University, said: ``It does not
matter constitutionally, nor as a matter of tradition, whether a
nomination is made in an election year. Numerous
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nominations have succeeded during election years. Without exaggeration,
Senate Republicans have made up a distinction without a relevant
constitutional difference.'' Even school children know that Presidents
are elected to 4-year terms and they have to carry out their
constitutional duties each and every year right up until noon of
January 20 of their last year. It is no different for Senators. We
can't just sit this year out because an election will be held in
November. As Professor Siegel concludes, Senate Republicans ``are
harming the court without a justification that passes the laugh test.''
Today, as we remember the victims, their families, and the entire
Oklahoma City community, let's also remember the good the Senate has
done when we have put aside destructive partisanship and come together
to act for the good of the country. This body has done that time and
again, under both Democratic and Republican leadership, as it has
carried out its constitutional duty to consider nominees to the Supreme
Court. I hope the Senate will carry out that duty for a public servant
named Merrick Garland who has served this country so well.
____________________