[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 8, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S64-S65]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MIKE DAVIS

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I would like to pay tribute to Mike 
Davis for his incredibly hard work on my Senate Judiciary Committee 
staff as chief counsel for nominations. He is an Iowan, so his work 
ethic should be no surprise, but he went above and beyond to ensure 
that the Senate confirmed a historic number of Federal judges during 
the 115th Congress, including the very difficult confirmation of 
Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In December, Mike spoke about his work for me 
to the Iowa Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. I ask unanimous 
consent that the text of Mike's speech be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Kavanaugh and Beyond: Judicial Confirmations in the Trump 
                             Administration

       Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you to Sam Langholz and the 
     rest of the Iowa lawyers' chapter of the Federalist Society 
     for inviting me to speak today. The Federalist Society 
     continues to perform the critical task of building the farm 
     team of constitutionalist, originalist, and textualist 
     lawyers across America who can go on to serve in senior 
     government posts, including in the federal judiciary. Sam is 
     no doubt one of those lawyers. I have known Sam for more than 
     20 years, from our college internship days in Washington. Sam 
     is an exceptional lawyer and leader, and Governor Kim 
     Reynolds and all Iowans are fortunate to have Sam serving as 
     a senior member of the Governor's team.
       I am completing my service as one of Senator Chuck 
     Grassley's lawyers on the United States Senate Committee on 
     the Judiciary, where Senator Grassley is finishing his 4-year 
     tenure as the Chairman. In January, Senator Grassley is 
     taking over the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, 
     along with assuming the constitutional office of President 
     Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. As President Pro 
     Tem, Senator Grassley will become third in line in the 
     presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the 
     Speaker of the House. It also means that Senator Grassley 
     must have a protective detail, which he absolutely does not 
     want. But as I remind him, the deer across Iowa can now cross 
     Iowa's highways a little more easily without the fear of 
     Chuck Grassley behind the wheel. At least for the next two 
     years, anyway.
       In all seriousness, I am very proud to work for Senator 
     Grassley. He is 85 years old, and his health is excellent. 
     His mind is razor-sharp. He remembers everything. He still 
     runs several miles, several times a week. He still runs 
     circles around his staff, especially me. In fact, the 
     ``Farmer from Iowa'' schools me on the law, when I am 
     supposed to advise him on legal issues. When he does this, I 
     tell him that at least my jokes are better than his. He 
     laughs. Sometimes.
       Senator Grassley is one of the most kind, caring, decent 
     people I have ever met. He comes home to Iowa virtually every 
     weekend. He puts Iowans above all. And he will never become a 
     creature of The Swamp, even after his 44 years in Congress. 
     Yet Senator Grassley is one of the most--if not the most--
     consequential lawmakers in Washington. And his chairmanship 
     of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been one of the most 
     consequential in our nation's history.
       In fact, earlier today, following Senator Grassley's dogged 
     and determined leadership, Senator Grassley joined the 
     President at the White House for the bill signing of the 
     First Step Act--a once-in-a-generation criminal-justice-
     reform bill that Senator Grassley wrote and shepherded 
     through Congress. No one expected this legislation to pass, 
     let alone with overwhelmingly bipartisan support. Yet Senator 
     Grassley is the one senator--with the experience, 
     credibility, and trust of his colleagues across the political 
     spectrum--who could have made this happen.

[[Page S65]]

       During his 4-year chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary 
     Committee, Senator Grassley led the effort to report out of 
     committee 61 bills. The Senate passed 45, and 29 became law. 
     Regardless of what you think about the particulars of any one 
     of these laws, very few in Washington have this record of 
     legislative success. As always, Grassley works. And Grassley 
     delivers. Like he has done for his 38 years in the Senate.
       I am particularly pleased to join you today to discuss one 
     of Senator Grassley's most significant legislative 
     achievements of his nearly 60-year career in public office. 
     As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator 
     Grassley led the historic and record-shattering effort to 
     confirm President Trump's lifetime-appointed judicial 
     nominees.
       Over the last two years, Senator Grassley has led the 
     effort in confirming 85 new federal judges. This includes 
     Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, an all-time record 30 
     circuit judges, and 53 district judges.
       At 85 judges appointed under President Trump, Senator 
     Grassley has led the effort to confirm nearly twice as many 
     judges as the 43 judges that President Obama appointed in his 
     first two years in office.
       Moreover, in 2017, Senator Grassley led the effort in 
     setting the all-time record for federal circuit judges 
     confirmed during a president's first year in office, at 12 
     circuit judges confirmed.
       And earlier this year, Senator Grassley led the effort in 
     setting the all-time record for federal circuit judges 
     confirmed during a president's first two years in office. The 
     previous record was 22; Senator Grassley helped smash this 
     record, by leading the effort to confirm 30 federal circuit 
     judges in less than 2 years.
       And Senator Grassley has readied the field for 2019, when 
     Senator Graham takes over as the chairman of the Senate 
     Judiciary Committee. Senator Grassley and the Senate 
     Judiciary Committee have already held hearings for 50 more 
     federal judicial nominees, including 6 more federal circuit 
     nominees, who will have confirmation votes in early 2019. 
     Senator Grassley has put the ball on the tee for his 
     successor.
       While Senator Grassley had made this look easy, it 
     certainly was not. Senator Grassley and his team thoroughly 
     vet each of these nominees, carefully examining their 
     backgrounds and qualifications, understanding their judicial 
     philosophy, and carefully assessing their character and 
     fitness to serve. Senator Grassley held 20 nominations 
     hearings this year alone, generally every other Wednesday 
     that the Senate was in session. And Senator Grassley 
     generally held committee meetings for debates and votes on 
     nominees almost every Thursday that the Senate was in 
     session. And Senator Grassley worked both behind the scenes 
     and in public, to build support for these judicial nominees.
       This took a significant amount of Senator Grassley's time. 
     But Senator Grassley understands the critical importance of 
     appointing judges who find and apply the law as the public 
     understood the law at the time of its writing. And Senator 
     Grassley also understands the dangers to liberty--in fact, 
     the tyranny--when judges think it is their job to substitute 
     their policy preferences for those of the American people and 
     their elected representatives in Congress.
       Fortunately, we are winning. The President is fulfilling 
     his promise to the American people to nominate and appoint 
     judges who are constitutionalists, originalists, and 
     textualists.
       Senator Grassley had to overcome historic obstruction by 
     Senate Democrats. The Senate Democrats forced time-wasting 
     and unprecedented cloture votes on 48 of the judicial 
     nominees brought to the Senate floor. How rare are cloture 
     votes for judicial nominees? Only 2 of President Obama's 
     nominees in the first two years faced cloture votes. Only 3 
     of President George W. Bush's nominees from the first two 
     years faced cloture votes. Only 1 for Clinton; 0 for H.W. 
     Bush; 0 for Reagan.
       And the Senate Democrats' obstruction tactics were on full 
     display during the confirmation process for Justice Brett 
     Kavanaugh, who the Senate confirmed on October 7, 2018. 
     Senator Grassley oversaw the most comprehensive and 
     transparent confirmation process in history, including fully 
     investigating a number of allegations against Justice 
     Kavanaugh that turned out to be completely meritless.
       Senator Grassley and his team reviewed the most 
     documentation in Supreme Court nomination history--including 
     more than 500,000 pages of Justice Kavanaugh's records from 
     his prior government legal service.
       Additionally, Senator Grassley and his team also reviewed 
     more than 300 written opinions--more than 10,000 pages--that 
     Justice Kavanaugh wrote or joined in his more than 12 years 
     of service on the D.C. Circuit, the most important federal 
     circuit court in America. We also reviewed more than 17,000 
     pages of Justice Kavanaugh's academic writings, speeches, and 
     other materials provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 
     response to its most expansive questionnaire ever submitted 
     to a nominee.
       Even after the 4-day hearing, in which Justice Kavanaugh 
     testified for more than 32 hours, Senate Democrats submitted 
     1,287 written questions for the record--more than the total 
     number submitted to all prior Supreme Court nominees in our 
     history, combined.
       The normal hearing process confirmed for Senator Grassley 
     that Justice Kavanaugh was one of the most qualified, if not 
     the most qualified, Supreme Court nominee in our history. The 
     Senate Democrats and their liberal allies landed no punches. 
     Justice Kavanaugh had gone through 6 prior FBI full-field 
     background investigations, going back to 1993. He had served 
     in the highest positions in the White House and on the second 
     most important court in the land for more than a dozen years. 
     It was very clear that Justice Kavanaugh unquestionably had 
     the character and fitness to serve.
       The Senate Democrats and their liberal allies ensured that 
     what should have been a ``normal'' confirmation hearing was 
     anything but normal. From the opening moments, Senate 
     Democrats conducted themselves more like petulant children 
     than United States senators. They interrupted the Chairman 
     with inappropriate motions and wild yelling. Indeed, 
     throughout the hearing, we experienced a senator--who 
     proclaimed to become Spartacus--willfully leaking 
     confidential records, another senator asking misleading 
     innuendo-laced questions with no basis, and other senators 
     doing other outrageous things.
       Leftwing allies followed the disgraceful lead of these 
     senators. With Justice Kavanaugh's two young daughters in the 
     room, paid protestors shouted vile things, disrupting the 
     hearing and dragging the process on for hours longer than 
     necessary. This mob-like behavior was apparent throughout the 
     process, as angry paid protestors harassed senators, their 
     families, and their staffs.
       When the hearing days were over and it was clear that 
     Justice Kavanaugh was a good man with impeccable credentials, 
     Senate Democrats and their leftwing allies went back to their 
     playbook from the Justice Thomas confirmation. But this time, 
     Senate Democrats and their leftwing allies went even farther, 
     accusing Justice Kavanaugh of being a serial gang-rapist who 
     drugged women at parties in his teenage years and even 
     through his 20s. While the FBI found no evidence of this in 
     any of its previous 6 full-field background investigations 
     conducted during Justice Kavanaugh's 25 years of public 
     service, Senator Grassley nonetheless took the allegations 
     seriously.
       More than 20 staff members of Senator Grassley's Oversight 
     & Investigations Unit and Nominations Unit immediately began 
     investigating these claims. They worked around the clock. 
     Their work was thorough and comprehensive. Senator Grassley 
     was satisfied it contained all the answers he needed, but 
     some senators demanded a supplemental FBI investigation. All 
     senators were able to review that supplemental report, and 
     most were satisfied that it confirmed what we already knew 
     and what Justice Kavanaugh had been saying from the 
     beginning: Justice Kavanaugh was innocent of the outrageous 
     allegations made against him.
       After Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation, Senator Grassley's 
     staff produced a report of more than 400 pages, which 
     catalogues the tireless work his staff did in investigating 
     these allegations. This report made clear that some of the 
     people who made the wild accusations against Justice 
     Kavanaugh deserved to be criminally referred to the Justice 
     Department. And Senator Grassley made those criminal 
     referrals.
       Senator Grassley felt strongly about making this report 
     public, because it demonstrates his commitment to process--
     something many Senate Democrats wanted none of. To them, due 
     process is inconvenient when it stands in the way of 
     achieving their political ends. Senator Grassley, however, 
     knows that upholding the constitutional cornerstone of due 
     process, of innocence until proven guilty, was worth fighting 
     for. And Senator Grassley helped deliver justice; Justice 
     Kavanaugh prevailed.
       The American people clearly felt the same way. Indeed, in 
     an election that showed big gains for Democrats across the 
     country, Republicans actually gained 2 seats in the Senate. 
     Voters booted out of office Trump-state Senate Democrats who 
     voted against Justice Kavanaugh--like Claire McCaskill from 
     Missouri, Joe Donnelly from Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp from 
     North Dakota, and Bill Nelson from Florida. The one Senate 
     Democrat who actually voted the way his constituents wanted 
     him--Joe Manchin from West Virginia--won reelection.
       These legislative victories are just more in the long line 
     of wins that the country has seen during Senator Grassley's 
     time chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. Again, Senator 
     Grassley works; Senator Grassley delivers.
       Thank you for your continued support of Senator Grassley. 
     And thank you for your continued efforts in helping to find, 
     credential, and appoint judges who share our judicial 
     philosophy. We can never get tired of winning. The stakes are 
     too high.
       Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
       I am happy to answer your questions.

                          ____________________