[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 138 (Tuesday, September 13, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5665-S5666]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for 2 years, President Obama's five 
eminently qualified nominees to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims have 
been awaiting a vote. This court has been referred to as the ``keeper 
of the nation's conscience'' and ``the People's Court.'' It was created 
by Congress approximately 160 years ago and embodies the constitutional 
principle that individuals have rights against their government. As 
President Lincoln said, ``It is as much the duty of Government to 
render prompt justice against itself, in favor of citizens, as it is to 
administer the same between private individuals.'' That is what this 
Court does: it allows citizens to seek prompt justice against our 
government.
  Yet 2 years of obstruction by a single Senator, the junior Senator 
from Arkansas, has forced the court to operate without one-third of its 
allotted judges. While these five nominees have been waiting for a 
vote, another judge retired, leaving the court with only 10 judges for 
16 seats, or a vacancy rate of 38 percent. This takes Senate Republican 
obstruction of judicial nominees to a new level.
  The court's jurisdiction is authorized by statute, and it primarily 
hears monetary claims against the U.S. Government deriving from the 
Constitution, Federal statutes, executive regulations, and civilian or 
military contracts. For example, the court has presided over such 
important cases as the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and the 
World War II internment of Japanese-Americans. It also presides over 
civilian and military pay claims and money claims under the Fifth 
Amendment's Takings Clause.
  I have heard no objections to the qualifications of any of the five 
nominees to this court. One of these nominees, Armando Bonilla, would 
be the first Hispanic judge to hold a seat on the Court. He is endorsed 
by the Hispanic National Bar Association. He has spent his entire 
career--now spanning over two decades--as an attorney for the 
Department of Justice. He was hired out of law school in the 
Department's prestigious honors program and has risen to become the 
Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Department. Mr. Bonilla should 
be confirmed without further delay.
  Another nominee, Jeri Somers, also has a long record of public 
service. She served her country in the Air Force, retiring with the 
rank of lieutenant colonel. She spent over two decades serving first as 
a judge advocate general and then as a military judge in the U.S. Air 
Force and the District of Columbia's Air National Guard. In 2007, she 
became a board judge with the U.S. Civilian Board of Contract Appeals 
and currently serves as its vice chair.
  Armando Bonilla and Jeri Somers are just two of the five nominees 
that Senate Republicans have been denying a confirmation vote. These 
are two individuals that have done right every step of the way in their 
careers and are willing to serve the American people on this important 
Court. They have dedicated the majority of their careers in service to 
our Nation. They deserve better than the treatment they are receiving 
from the Senate.

[[Page S5666]]

  During the Bush administration, the Senate confirmed nine judges to 
the Court of Federal Claims, with the support of every Senate 
Republican. So far, during the Obama administration, only three Court 
of Federal Claims nominees have received confirmation votes. That is 
nine CFC judges during the Bush administration to only three so far in 
the Obama administration.
  It appears that the Senate Republicans' obstruction playbook leaves 
no court behind. It spans from the very top, with their complete 
refusal to give a hearing and a vote to Chief Judge Merrick Garland, to 
the article III circuit and district courts, to the article I Court of 
Federal Claims, where citizens go to sue their government.
  This blockade of all five CFC nominees makes no sense, especially 
because not a single Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee 
raised a concern about these nominees either during the committee 
hearings on these nominations 2 years ago or during the Committee 
debate 2 years ago or last year.
  None of President Bush's nominees to the Court of Federal Claims 
spent longer than 4 months on the Senate floor before receiving a 
confirmation vote. Two of them waited only a single day. After 2 years, 
it is well past time for these five nominees to receive a vote so they 
can get to work on the shorthanded Court of Federal Claims.

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