[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 8, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S2709]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Madam President, on nominations, today is a great example of how 
Leader McConnell and the Senate, in place of real legislative progress 
and in place of helping the middle class in this turbulent world in 
which we live, simply used floor time as a legislative graveyard to 
only rubberstamp extreme and unqualified nominees with no legislating. 
We have become a legislative graveyard under Leader McConnell's 
leadership, and the middle class and people trying to get there suffer.
  This afternoon, Senate Republicans are going to confirm Janet Dhillon 
to be the Chair of the EEOC. This move to restore a quorum by 
confirming a Republican nominee, while refusing to consider Democratic 
nominees--which had been the Senate's tradition to always do these 
nominees in a bipartisan way, one Democrat and one Republican 
together--is going to imperil equal pay rules and protections for LGBTQ 
workers.
  This afternoon, the Senate will vote to end debate on the nomination 
of Michael Park to the Second Circuit. A quick overview of Mr. Park's 
experience reveals some pretty outlandish views.
  In private practice, he advanced arguments that would limit the civil 
rights of millions of Americans on matters pertaining to the census and 
educational opportunity. He represented groups in an amicus brief 
against the constitutionality of Medicaid expansion and worked to 
defend the Kansas effort to defund Planned Parenthood.
  Since the Second Circuit covers my home State of New York, I met with 
Mr. Park to try to understand why he was being nominated for a lifetime 
position as a circuit court judge. Frankly, his principal 
qualifications seemed to be that he is a card-carrying member of the 
Federalist Society.
  Mr. Park has little experience and little judicial background. He is 
an ideologue. He doesn't have the kind of balance and integrity and 
compassion and understanding of both sides that any judge needs. It 
will be obvious to anyone who reviews his record that he lacks the 
breadth and objectivity that we prize in our judges, but my Republican 
friends, like Leader McConnell, have a singular goal: to remake the 
Federal bench in their image. So Federalist stooges, like Mr. Park, who 
aren't qualified for District Court, are being rammed through as 
circuit court judges.
  The Senate ought to reject this confirmation. In the less partisan 
Senates of the past, it wouldn't even have come forward, but, 
regrettably, instead of legislating, instead of doing things for the 
American people, all Leader McConnell is doing is ramming through these 
nominees, most of whom are way out of the mainstream, far away from the 
views of most Americans, and unqualified for their jobs.
  This wouldn't have happened years ago. I hope my colleagues, when 
they look at Mr. Park's record, will do the right thing.