[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 104 (Wednesday, June 14, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S2080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Biden administration has been 
sending the Senate a dizzying list of radical and unqualified nominees 
to both the executive branch and the Federal bench. In several cases, 
the President's picks have been so far outside the mainstream that this 
Chamber's Democratic majority hasn't even been willing to confirm them.
  Right now, our Democratic colleagues are struggling to convince one 
another to confirm a State employment commissioner who was responsible 
for tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment insurance 
payments, and this nominee has been recommended by the administration 
for Secretary of Labor. They have had a hard time agreeing to give a 
lifetime judgeship to a self-described ``wild-eyed leftist'' who 
likened hate for conservative Americans to ``righteous indignation'' 
and ``moral clarity.''
  All the while, the docket of downright radical nominees continues to 
fill. This week, the Democratic leader will file cloture on two new 
nominations to the Federal bench. First, Nusrat Choudhury is President 
Biden's latest pick to join the Eastern District of New York. This 
nominee has made statements ranging from reckless suggestions that 
crimes like theft do not threaten public safety to false and 
inflammatory assertions that police kill Black men ``every day'' in 
America. Unsurprisingly, these statements have drawn the ire and 
opposition of law enforcement groups across our country.
  And second, Julie Rikelman is nominated to the First Circuit Court of 
Appeals. Ms. Rikelman has described efforts to limit abortion as a 
``vicious assault'' by ``hostile politicians'' and has even objected to 
restrictions on reprehensible practices like sex-selection abortions.
  So, Mr. President, these are the nominees of a President who promised 
to unify our country. I would urge my colleagues to join me in 
rejecting each of them.