[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 65 (Thursday, April 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1951-S1952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF VANITA GUPTA

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on another, less happy, matter, this 
afternoon the Senate will need to go through a rare procedure to 
discharge a nomination from the Judiciary Committee: Ms. Vanita Gupta 
to serve as Associate Attorney General.
  The daughter of immigrants from India, Ms. Gupta is the first civil 
rights attorney and the first woman of color to ever be nominated for 
Associate Attorney General, the third ranking official at the 
Department of Justice. Her public track record is nothing short of 
exemplary.
  In her very first case after law school, Ms. Gupta won the release of 
several African Americans who had

[[Page S1952]]

been wrongly convicted by all-White juries in Texas, clients who 
eventually won a pardon from Texas Governor Rick Perry. She continued 
her work at the ACLU, where she launched a bipartisan criminal justice 
reform effort, before going on to lead the Civil Rights Division of the 
Justice Department under President Obama.
  Despite her sterling credentials, some of my Republican colleagues on 
the Judiciary Committee would have you believe that Ms. Gupta is some 
hair-raising, leftwing radical. In her hearing, Ms. Gupta was 
unfortunately subjected to a mind-numbingly repetitious line of 
questions about whether or not she supports the police or wants to 
decriminalize all drugs.
  A conservative judicial organization launched a national ad campaign 
to smear her nomination. It was disgraceful. Just yesterday, a 
Republican Senator on the Judiciary Committee grilled another DOJ 
nominee, Kristen Clarke, over an obviously satirical piece she 
published for her college newspaper.
  The political right seems to relish trying to score political points 
by connecting every Justice Department to hot-button partisan issues, 
whether or not they have any relevance, sometimes to the point of 
absurdity. And in the case of Ms. Gupta, the accusations of radicalism 
are especially false.
  Ms. Gupta has worked with stakeholders and legislators from all 
corners, including a number of Republican Senators, during various 
criminal justice reform efforts. She has been endorsed by--listen to 
this--the National Fraternal Order of Police. Let me repeat that so my 
colleagues hear it. She has been endorsed by the National Fraternal 
Order of Police, as well as the International Association of Chiefs of 
Police, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and the 
National Sheriffs' Association. It is making the decrying that she is a 
crazy leftwing radical just absurd, and you wonder how and why they 
come to that conclusion.
  Vanita Gupta will make an outstanding Associate Attorney General. The 
Senate should discharge her nomination from the Judiciary Committee 
this afternoon.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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