[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 38 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1332-S1333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Nomination of Tilman Self

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise out of a great sense of pride to 
exercise one of my responsibilities in the U.S. Senate to speak on 
behalf of Tripp Self, a judge from the Georgia courts, who has been 
nominated to become a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Middle 
District of Georgia. The vote will take place not too long from now, 
and I encourage every Senator to cast his vote for Judge Self. He is 
the whole package.
  He has a wonderful wife and family and four great children. He worked 
in the private sector for years and accomplished many things in the 
private sector. He went to the University of Georgia School of Law and 
graduated cum laude and summa cum laude from The Citadel, The Military 
College of South Carolina, and went on to have a distinguished private 
career. He then served as a superior court judge on the Macon Judicial 
Circuit for the State of Georgia. In that job with the superior court, 
he did something that I am very close to. He is an entrepreneur because 
he started the Veterans Treatment Court for the Middle District of 
Georgia and for that judicial circuit.
  The Veterans Treatment Court, as all of you know, is a court that is 
formed to help veterans who stray from the law or who have difficulties 
when they come home either because of PTSD or TBI. It helps them with 
the struggles of battle that they have had and with whatever problems 
they may have had from representing us on the battlefield. They trip 
and they fall, and they need somebody to help get them up. We want to 
make them do the right thing but also help them get themselves brushed 
off, look forward to careers, and help them get that step forward. We 
do that with teenagers with what are called CASAs, Court Appointed 
Special Advocates. We turn people around who otherwise might go to 
jail--young kids. The Veterans Treatment Court takes those who have 
risked paying the ultimate sacrifice--that of their lives for you and 
for me and for everybody else--who might have fallen off just a little 
bit. When we get them back into the judicial system, we get them 
straightened out, and we move them forward so they have better lives 
and rewarding careers of their own--thanking them for all of the things 
they have done for us as veterans.
  As the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate 
and as one who recognizes the value of the court system for all of the 
things it does to administer justice, I am particularly proud to have a 
judge who has used his entrepreneurial skills to deal with a problem 
our society has in the legal sense and in the court sense and to see to 
it that our veterans are getting the help they need and that our 
communities are getting the representation they need.
  I am also a football fan. I know calling football games is tough, 
just as making judicial decisions is tough. Tripp Self officiates NCAA 
football in the Southern Conference. Two years ago, he was selected to 
do the 2017 FCS national championship game, which is a testament to his 
ability to call balls and strikes on the field.
  He is a pretty good shot too. He is a turkey hunter and likes to 
turkey hunt and likes the outdoors.
  Most importantly, he loves the United States of America. He respects 
and loves the law for what it does. We are a nation of laws and not of 
men. He does everything in his capacity as an individual and as one on 
the bench to see to it that our country is a better country and our 
State is a better State--the State I represent, Georgia.
  When each Senator turns to vote in a few minutes on the confirmations 
of the three judges that will come before us today, when it comes to 
Judge Tripp Self, of Georgia, may each cast a vote proudly for someone 
who is a legal entrepreneur for veterans, one who has served with 
distinction in the State as a private sector practicing attorney and on 
the bench already, and one who will serve the United States of America 
very well in the years to come.
  I commend him and his family for being willing to take on this 
responsibility, and I thank the President of the United States for the 
wisdom to make this appointment.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Scholer 
nomination?
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), 
the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), and

[[Page S1333]]

the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) 
would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from North Dakota (Ms. 
Heitkamp) is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lankford). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 95, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 46 Ex.]

                                YEAS--95

     Alexander
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Booker
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Harris
     Hassan
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Moran
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Cruz
     Heitkamp
     McCain
     Murkowski
     Sullivan
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________