[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 16 (Tuesday, January 31, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S499-S500]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday the Senate voted to advance 
President Trump's nominee for Secretary of State. I look forward to 
confirming him and the rest of the President's slate of well-qualified 
nominees. We need them to get to work as soon as possible.
  We will have more opportunities to advance nominees starting this 
afternoon, and later tonight, we expect the President to send us 
another nominee. The President said he will announce his choice for the 
Supreme Court shortly from a list of about 20 well-qualified Americans. 
It is a list he shared publicly months ago. As I said yesterday, each 
of those potential nominees has a distinguished background, whether on 
the appellate courts or trial courts, whether at the State level or the 
Federal level.
  We look forward to the announcement of this nominee tonight, and we 
look forward to doing our job to fairly consider that nominee here in 
the Senate. Our friends across the aisle should treat this President's 
nominee in the same manner as previous nominees of newly elected 
Presidents. This is not the time for our friends to embark on another 
partisan crusade.
  We have just been through a contentious election. It is time to bring 
our country together. It is disappointing

[[Page S500]]

that we have already started hearing some of the same tired rhetoric 
from the left. This is before the President even announces the 
nominee--disappointing but not surprising. The left has been doing this 
for decades. It does not matter if the President is George H.W. Bush or 
Gerald Ford. It does not matter if the nominee is David Souter or John 
Paul Stevens. They will warn of impending doom. They will claim the end 
is nigh. They will run through the required list of attacks: extreme 
this, anti that, herald the apocalypse. And then, miraculously, the Sun 
will rise again in the East, and the world will still keep on turning. 
I hope we can skip past the left's hyperbole this time.
  Unfortunately, we have heard our friend the Democratic leader talk 
about fighting the President's nominee tooth and nail. We have heard 
that others in his party are preparing to mount a filibuster of this 
nominee. Of course, we do not even know who it is yet. That is not 
productive. That is not what our country needs right now.
  We understand that some on the left will never be pleased with any 
nominee this President--or any Republican President, for that matter--
puts forward. We know some will continue to refuse to accept the 
results of the election. But our Democratic colleagues should not 
follow the far left down that harmful path for our country.
  We need to all remember that the Supreme Court seat does not belong 
to any President or any political party. I have been clear all along 
that the next President, regardless of party--regardless of party--
would name the next nominee for this seat. It is a decision I stood by 
even when it seemed likely we would have a Democrat in the White House. 
It is worth repeating, of course, that this standard is not uniquely 
mine or even Senate Republicans'. There is a reason this principle has 
been called not only the Biden rule but also the Schumer standard.
  But, look, the election season is now over. We have a new President. 
We each have a responsibility to be serious and move from campaign mode 
to governing mode. It is my sincere hope that our friends across the 
aisle will join us in thoughtfully reviewing and considering the next 
Supreme Court Justice. It is the best way forward for the Senate, for 
the Court, and for our country.

                          ____________________