[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 116 (Thursday, July 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, all week the Senate 
has continued our productivity in overcoming partisan opposition and 
confirming the President's well-qualified nominees for important 
offices.
  We have confirmed the newest judge on the Ninth Circuit. Yesterday we 
confirmed three district judges by overwhelming bipartisan margins--78 
to 15, 80 to 14, and 85 to 10. Those are the margins on three district 
judges. Clearly, we are not exactly talking about radioactive, 
controversial nominees here, not when 78 votes for confirmation is the 
low end.
  Nevertheless, as has become typical over the past 2\1/2\ years, our 
Democratic colleagues insisted on cloture votes to cut off debate 
before we could confirm any of them. In fact, we have yet to voice-vote 
a single judicial nominee this entire Congress. We haven't voice-voted 
a single judicial nominee this entire Congress.
  It is really a shame. It is not the precedent the Senate ought to be 
setting for these lower tier nominations. Of course, we have confirmed 
them nonetheless.
  Before the end of this week, the Senate will have done the same for 
three other lower level nominees to the executive branch.
  Weeks like this were impossible before my Republican colleagues and I 
did the right thing for the institution a few months back and moved the 
Senate back toward our historic norms for nominations of this sort. We 
argued that Senate Democrats were mindlessly obstructing even the least 
controversial nominees just for obstruction's sake.
  Our colleagues across the aisle insisted, no, the majority would be 
ramming through these extreme individuals and cutting off intense 
debate that these extreme nominees deserve. Well, who is right? Well, 
one more time for good measure: 78 to 15, 80 to 14, and 85 to 10. 
Enough said.
  It is particularly ironic that some of my friends across the aisle 
elect to complain that the Senate is spending too much time on 
nominations--the Presiding Officer has heard that--spending too much 
time on nominations. I am not making this up. We actually hear 
protestations from the Democratic side that confirming these men and 
women is taking too long, as though it weren't totally obvious to 
everyone that their own unprecedented delaying tactics are the only 
reason these nominees have not been quickly confirmed in big batches on 
a voice vote.
  It is quite the two-step: Democrats systemically drag their heels for 
2\1/2\ years and counting and then complain we are not moving fast 
enough. Well, if it weren't clear by now, the tactics are not going to 
work. The Senate is going to press on. We are going to do our job.
  Today, we will press on despite 492 days of obstruction--492 days of 
obstruction--and confirm Peter Wright, the President's nominee to serve 
as--listen to this--an Assistant Administrator at EPA. He has been 
waiting for 492 days.
  As it happens, we will also vote on two Kentuckians--Robert King and 
John Pallasch. Mr. King has been nominated to serve as Assistant 
Secretary for Postsecondary Education. He comes with an impressive 
record of experience in higher education administration and advocacy at 
home in the Bluegrass State and beyond. Mr. Pallasch has been tapped 
for Assistant Secretary of Labor. His resume includes service as 
director of the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training as well as 
previous service with the Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for 
Mine Safety and Health.
  I will be proud to support each of these well-qualified nominees as 
their senior Senator from Kentucky but moreover as someone who believes 
that the American President deserves to have his team in place and that 
citizens ought to be governed by the government they actually voted 
for.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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