[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 175 (Monday, October 30, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6862-S6863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. SCHUMER. On judges, Mr. President, this week the majority leader 
has scheduled votes on four circuit court nominations. It is the first 
time, in my memory, that the Senate is being asked to process four 
circuit court judges in a single week. The circuit courts have an 
immense influence on our country, adjudicating some of the thorniest of 
legal issues. Only the rarest and most vexing circuit court decisions 
are appealed to and taken up by the Supreme Court. For this reason, we 
typically don't sandwich circuit court nominees back to back to back to 
back only a week--only a week--after they have emerged from committee 
because Members who are not on the Judiciary Committee usually need 
time--always need time to review these candidates for such important, 
powerful, and far-reaching positions.
  Why has the majority leader departed from this practice? Well, one 
can argue it is because the Republican agenda has been such a failure 
in this Congress, the leader has chosen to try and accomplish through 
the courts what Republicans have been unable to achieve through the 
legislative process. The Republican agenda has been so unpopular with 
the American people that it has stalled at every juncture so now they 
have made a brazen move to pack the courts with activist judges and 
remake them in their conservative, ideological image.

[[Page S6863]]

  Why has the majority leader done it? The hard right, frustrated by 
the failure of repeal and replace, has, for months, been pressuring 
Senator McConnell to do something aggressive. Senator McConnell, once 
again, despite his desire to make the Senate work--and I believe that 
is sincere--is bending to the hard right of his party by jamming 
through these judges, breaking the norms and traditions of the Senate 
in the process. I intend to oppose these extremist nominees.

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