[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1772-S1773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Judicial Nominations

  Madam President, last week, we confirmed John Fleming to be Assistant 
Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development. The story of his 
confirmation process has been a familiar one over the past 2-plus 
years. He is a noncontroversial nominee being forced

[[Page S1773]]

to languish in limbo for months because Democrats will not agree to 
move the nominee forward outside of the lengthy cloture process.
  As Senators, we have to take our confirmation responsibility 
seriously, and sometimes that means that we oppose a candidate who 
raises serious concerns about his or her suitability for the position 
for which he or she has been nominated. What it should not mean--what 
it should not mean--is that we reflexively slow-walk qualified 
candidates simply because we don't like the President who is doing the 
nominating. But that is what Democrats have done over the past 2 years, 
over and over and over. Again and again, the President has put up a 
qualified candidate the Democrats don't really object to, and, again 
and again, they have forced the leader to file cloture on the 
nomination, delaying confirmation for weeks or months.

  How do we know the Democrats didn't have genuine objections to a lot 
of these candidates? We have the Democrats' votes to prove it. Nearly 
half of the recorded cloture votes in the 115th Congress received the 
support of 60 or more Senators when it came to a vote. More than one-
third of the recorded cloture votes ultimately received 70 or more 
votes in support. That means that more than one-third of the time, 17 
or more Democrats voted in support of ending debate on a nomination and 
moving forward to a vote. Yet, in each of those instances, Democrats 
delayed the nomination from coming to a vote by forcing the leader to 
file cloture.
  In one particularly egregious instance of objection, Democrats forced 
the Senate to spend more than an entire week considering four district 
court judges, even though not one single Democrat voted against their 
confirmation. That is right. Not one single Democrat voted against 
their confirmation. These judges could have been confirmed in minutes 
by a voice vote. Instead, Democrats forced the Senate to spend more 
than an entire week considering the nominations, a week that could have 
been spent on the many issues--serious issues that are facing this 
country--or a week that could have been spent on nominations that 
actually needed to be debated on the Senate floor.
  During the 115th Congress, Senate Democrats forced 128 cloture votes 
on President Trump's nominees--128 cloture votes. Do you want to know 
how many cloture votes Republicans forced during President Obama's 
first Congress, his first 2 years in office? Twelve.
  In our democracy, you win some elections and you lose some elections. 
That is the way it goes. Sometimes you are a big fan of the person in 
the White House and sometimes you are not. That is the nature of free 
elections. That is the nature of life in a democracy.
  But 2-plus years on, Democrats still can't accept that they lost the 
2016 Presidential election. They have spent the past 2 years doing 
everything they can to oppose the President, even if the American 
people get hurt as a result.
  There is a reason that Senators, during previous administrations, 
have not objected to votes on a President's nominees, even when they 
didn't like the President. It is because Senators have generally 
recognized that a President needs to fill vacancies in the executive 
branch so that the work of the government can get done. Senators have 
also tended to think that a President duly elected by the American 
people deserves to be able to staff the administration that the 
American people have chosen.
  Democrats have apparently decided that it is more important for them 
to be able to express their antipathy to President Trump than for the 
government to be able to get its work done.
  Democrats' unprecedented obstruction has also eaten up time that the 
Senate could have been spending on other priorities--from growing our 
economy to making healthcare more affordable, to helping Americans save 
for education and their retirement.
  I would like to suggest to my Democratic colleagues that 2 years is 
long enough for throwing a tantrum over the 2016 Presidential election. 
It might be time to accept the election results and to work with 
Republicans to confirm the President's nominees in a timely fashion. 
After 2-plus years of Democratic obstruction, I am not holding out a 
lot of hope, but there is always a chance that Democrats will decide 
that it is time to stop playing partisan games and to start focusing on 
the business of the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Scott of Florida). Without objection, it 
is so ordered.