[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 58 (Wednesday, April 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2047-S2048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on another matter, yesterday the 
Senate confirmed the first of six nominees slated for consideration 
this week, Claria Horn Boom to serve as district judge for the Eastern 
and Western Districts of Kentucky. She was confirmed 96 to 1. There was 
just one Senator in opposition.
  This is the kind of uncontroversial nomination the Senate could 
typically dispatch by a voice vote, but not these days. Over and over 
again, we have had to file cloture and exhaust floor time on amply 
qualified nominees who then soar through their confirmation votes by 
lopsided margins.
  Since President Trump took office, the Senate has had to hold 82--
82--cloture votes on judicial and executive nominations. In the first 2 
years of President Obama's administration, there were only 12 such 
cloture votes--12 for President Obama, 4 for George W. Bush, 8 for 
President Clinton, and already, just a few months into President 
Trump's second year, there have been 82. The numbers speak for 
themselves.
  Today we will have the opportunity to confirm yet another qualified 
nominee for a critical post. John Ring's nomination to serve on the 
National Labor Relations Board is an important next step to continue 
cleaning years of regulatory rust off of the American economy. It is a 
natural addition to the progress we have made scaling back unhelpful 
regulations that make it harder for American businesses to create jobs 
and make opportunities for American workers more scarce.
  Mr. Ring's confirmation will give the country a fully staffed NLRB 
once again and turn the page on the previous administration's efforts 
to remake this bipartisan Board into a one-sided political weapon. Even 
in a short amount of time last year, we saw just how much good a fully 
functioning NLRB can do for American workers when it calls balls and 
strikes fairly instead of bending over backward to

[[Page S2048]]

meet Big Labor's every demand. Today we will have the chance to get 
things back to normal for the long term.
  Mr. Ring has a distinguished record in labor negotiation. I would 
urge my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm him today.
  After Mr. Ring, the Senate will turn to the nomination of Pat 
Pizzella to serve as Deputy Secretary of Labor. The fact that this 
Cabinet agency has gone 15 months without its No. 2 official is yet 
another testament to the historic obstruction visited on this 
administration by Senate Democrats. He has been sitting on the calendar 
for 6 months despite his ample qualifications. I would urge all of my 
colleagues to vote to finally advance Mr. Pizzella's nomination.

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