[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 59 (Thursday, April 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2245-S2246]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               S. RES. 50

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, the Senate took an important 
step to restore sense and order to the way we approach the Executive 
Calendar. It is one of this body's most important responsibilities. Yet 
it has been hampered recently by a campaign of systematic and 
comprehensive obstruction that stands literally without precedent in 
American history.
  I won't restate each part of our debate from the floor yesterday, but 
the objective facts of this situation are unambiguous. For the past 2 
years, we have witnessed the accelerated erosion of the norms by which 
this body has historically considered Presidential nominations. We have 
seen a disappointing series of records broken in the process, such as 
128 cloture votes on nominations in this President's first 2 years--
more than 5 times as many as in the same period of every administration 
since Jimmy Carter, combined. Forty-two executive branch positions took 
cloture votes for the first time ever.
  This has been a new level of paralysis, surrounding even the most 
qualified and least controversial nominees. In a way, it has been the 
natural outgrowth of the erosion on nominations that began back in 2003 
when our current Democratic leader helped spur his side of the aisle to 
walk away from longstanding institutional norms and declare the 
Executive Calendar open season for regular, chronic filibuster tactics 
and forced cloture votes. That is when this relatively new mess began 
in earnest.
  In 2013, in a truly bipartisan vote, a number of Republicans, 
including me, joined with Democrats to implement new expedited 
procedures for lower tier nominees. We put them in place right at the 
beginning of President Obama's second term, even as we on this side 
were still licking our wounds from the previous November's election 
result.
  This week, our Democratic colleagues had the chance to reciprocate. 
They had the opportunity to do the parallel thing, exactly the same 
thing, and vote to limit undue Senate delays for this Republican 
administration the same way we Republicans did for President Obama's 
administration. Oh, but they weren't interested.
  These days, I am sorry to say, the other side of the aisle seems to 
be dominated by pure partisanship over absolutely everything else. 
Remember, it wasn't long ago that this current behavior would have 
appeared unimaginable. Just a few decades ago, the idea of routinely 
forcing 60-vote thresholds and extra delays on nominations was firmly 
in third-rail territory. Well, a lot has happened since then, but I 
hope my colleagues share my belief that the Senate's traditions and 
norms are its greatest assets. In that respect, yesterday was a very 
good day for this body as an institution.
  The Senate has historically been defined by two traditions. One has 
preserved the power of the minority in considering legislation--to pump 
the brakes or force a second look. That includes the legislative 
filibuster, which I know many of us on both sides are 100 percent 
committed to preserving. In my view and in the view of many, it is 
inseparable from the way this body was designed. It is what keeps the 
Senate from swinging wildly back and forth between each party's entire 
agenda.
  I don't think my Democratic colleagues who are running for President 
and publicly toying with undermining the legislative filibuster would 
be too keen to see Republicans enact our entire, full-tilt conservative 
agenda with just 51 votes, because some day the shoe will be on the 
other foot. The shoe, in fact, always at some point ends up on the 
other foot.
  That is one tradition.
  The second tradition, concerning nominations, has always been 
different. For decades and decades, it allowed for a reasonable process 
for the vast majority of Presidents' nominees. Yesterday, even though 
Democrats walked away and Republicans had to act alone, we took a big 
step toward restoring that second part of Senate tradition.
  I am sure yesterday's progress has not resolved every sore spot. I 
feel certain that we have not seen the last of our Democratic 
colleagues' addiction

[[Page S2246]]

to endlessly relitigating the 2016 elections instead of moving forward. 
But with yesterday's action, the Senate has begun to move past this 
particularly shameful new chapter. We have turned the page on the kind 
of systematic obstruction and purely partisan delays that were 
completely foreign to this Chamber a few years ago but have since 
become a daily routine. Now more progress can take place.
  Yesterday, after two unopposed committee votes and more than a year 
and a half after Jeffrey Kessler was named as President Trump's choice 
for Assistant Secretary of Commerce, his nomination was subjected to a 
cloture vote, 95 to 3. Because of our new procedures, he was confirmed 
by voice vote just 2 hours later. Then we voted to end debate on the 
nomination of Roy Altman to serve on the U.S. District Court for the 
Southern District of Florida--another uncontroversial, bipartisan 
nominee. Today we will confirm him as well. Then we will vote to end 
debate on the nomination of Mark Calabria to direct the Federal Housing 
Finance Agency, and then we will vote to confirm him too.
  Nominees will now be moving at a more reasonable pace, and important 
jobs are finally being filled. Already there is real progress thanks to 
yesterday's pivot back to the Senate's historic tradition. We will keep 
working to clear the backlog of talented individuals who are still 
waiting patiently behind them.

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