[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 184 (Tuesday, November 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5391-S5393]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Nomination of Julia E. Kobick

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm 
Julia Kobick to the U.S. District Court for the District of 
Massachusetts.
  Ms. Kobick is an accomplished litigator whose credentials and breadth 
of experience make her well-suited to serve on this court. After 
receiving her A.B. from Harvard College, her M.S. from Pace University, 
and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, Ms. Kobick began her legal career 
with prestigious clerkships for judges appointed by Presidents of both 
political parties: Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV on the District of 
Massachusetts, Judge Michael A. Chagares on the Third Circuit, and 
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
  After her clerkships, Ms. Kobick joined the Office of the 
Massachusetts Attorney General, serving first as an assistant attorney 
general and currently as the deputy State solicitor. During her tenure 
in that office, Ms. Kobick has practiced in Federal and State courts--
handling cases defending State laws, regulations, and Agency actions, 
as well as affirmative cases brought by the Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts. Over the course of her career, she has argued more than 
20 dispositive motions in trial courts and delivered oral arguments in 
19 appeals.
  Ms. Kobick has the strong support of her home state Senators, Ms. 
Warren and Mr. Markey. In addition, she received a rating of ``well 
qualified'' from the American Bar Association. Ms. Kobick's 
credentials, breadth of experience, and deep ties to the Massachusetts 
legal community will serve the district court well. I urge my 
colleagues to support her nomination.
  Mr. CORNYN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

[[Page S5392]]

  

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Arkansas.
  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, last month, Iranian-backed Hamas 
terrorists slaughtered over 30 Americans and 1,400 Israelis. These 
depraved savages raped women, murdered children, and executed entire 
families, burning some of them alive. The dead are still being 
identified, and families are still grieving unbelievable heartbreak.
  Yet, over the weekend, former President Barack Obama discovered 
complexity and ambiguity where there is none in these attacks. He said 
that we ``have to admit nobody's hands are clean, that all of us are 
complicit to some degree.''
  What Barack Obama said over the weekend might pass for profound at 
cocktail parties on Martha's Vineyard or on podcasts with sycophantic 
former staffers, but it is also delusional and morally obtuse. Put 
simply, it is the confession of a guilty man attempting to implicate 
others, because we are not all complicit with Hamas's massacre of Jews, 
but Barack Obama sure is.
  No American President did more to embolden and enrich Iran and its 
terrorist proxies than Barack Obama. Indeed, his entire Middle East 
policy was crafted to appease Iran. As President, he stayed quiet when 
Iranian protesters took to the streets in the Green Revolution. He 
sabotaged legislation in Congress sanctioning Iran. He cut and ran from 
Iraq, knowing that Iran and its proxies would fill the power vacuum. He 
refused to enforce a self-drawn redline and stood by as Syria 
disintegrated into a ``geopolitical Chernobyl'' because Bashar al-Assad 
is an Iranian puppet. He consistently undermined Benjamin Netanyahu--
Iran's chief nemesis in the region--and even refused to veto a United 
Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel. And, of course, 
he negotiated the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, handing the ayatollahs 
over $100 billion in sanctions relief. Barack Obama singlehandedly 
saved the Iranian economy and harmed diplomatic relations with our 
allies in Saudi Arabia and Israel. When he left office, the Middle East 
was in flames, and Iran was on the march.
  Tragically, Barack Obama's coterie of Iran appeasers, apologists, and 
accomplices have returned to the White House. His understudy, Joe 
Biden, is now President. The man who helped to secretly negotiate the 
Iran nuclear deal, Jake Sullivan, is now National Security Advisor. His 
Treasury Secretary, who served as a de facto investment banker for the 
ayatollahs, is now Ambassador to Israel. Barack Obama's legacy is alive 
and well in this administration, and it certainly shows.
  Within days of taking office, the Biden administration removed the 
Houthis--another Iranian proxy--from the list of terrorist 
organizations without any concessions. And how did the Houthis reward 
Joe Biden? By firing dozens of missiles and attack drones towards 
Israel just days after Hamas's rampage.
  In his first hundred days, the Biden administration announced that it 
would send hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran's friends in Gaza, 
Judea, and Samaria. They claimed it would foster peace and stability in 
the region. How did that work out? The next month, Iranian-backed 
militias launched 4,000 rockets into Israel.
  Since taking office, Joe Biden has enriched the ayatollahs with over 
$90 billion through his lax enforcement of oil sanctions and his 
unfreezing of Iranian assets. Tehran has predictably used this Biden 
bonus to strengthen its military and arm its proxies.
  Just last year, Iran doubled the budget of the Revolutionary Guard 
Corps--the shock troops of its terror regime--and it more than tripled 
its support for Hamas's military brigades.
  The very same month that Biden agreed to unfreeze $6 billion in 
Iranian assets, the Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly started to 
assist with the planning of the October 7 attacks that killed, I say 
again, over 30 Americans and more than 1,400 Israelis.
  This is the nature of the regime that Barack Obama coddled for years. 
It is the nature of the regime that has dispatched its proxies to 
attack American servicemembers over 110 times since Joe Biden took 
office. Let me say that again. Iran's proxies have attacked American 
troops in positions in the Middle East over 110 times since Joe Biden 
took office. What have Joe Biden and his gang of Obama acolytes done in 
return? They fired a few missiles at empty proxy warehouses, merely 
validating Iran's proxy strategy.
  The ayatollahs are laughing at Joe Biden, just like they laughed at 
Barack Obama.
  Barack Obama is the last person who should pontificate on this issue. 
The only thing we should hear from him is an admission that he was 
wrong and an apology. Maybe he can include it in his upcoming fourth 
memoir due out later this year.
  My message to the former President is simple: Don't try to excuse 
your own failures by blaming the rest of us. The people ``complicit'' 
in the attack on Israel are the terrorists who committed it, the 
Iranian regime that funded it, and the Obama and Biden administrations 
that appeased them. The responsibility for the events of October 7 rest 
squarely on their shoulders and their shoulders alone.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, today, I want to tell you about a 
story of love, a love between two people that is beautiful and deep. It 
is the story of a couple known as Judy and Gad, two people in their 
seventies who believe in humanity and in peace.
  Judy is a native New Yorker who teaches English literature and 
mindfulness. Gad is a chef and a jazz musician who friends describe as 
funny and authentic. The couple raised four children and have welcomed 
seven grandchildren. They inspire those around them with their big 
hearts and their open minds.
  On the morning of October 7, they were walking near a kibbutz, Nir 
Oz. When rockets rained down overhead, they hid face down in nearby 
fields. At one point, Judy called an ambulance because the couple had 
been shot, but the ambulance couldn't reach them, and now they are both 
missing.
  Judy and Gad are just two of the hundreds of people held hostage by 
the terrorist organization Hamas. They are peaceful, loving people who 
don't deserve to suffer. But since October 7, their family hasn't heard 
from them, and as the war in Gaza grows, they are concerned about the 
couple's safety and well-being.
  Another family in Nir Oz was also taken by the terrorists. Their 
cousin, a New Yorker, has been working with my office. She says they 
are ``six of the human beings she loves most in the entire world.'' She 
says she won the lottery as a member of their close-knit family. 
According to Alana, the New Yorker we have been working with, Danielle 
is like her sister, a natural nurturer who gives great hugs.
  Danielle was with her 5-year-old daughter when they were taken 
hostage by Hamas. They were visiting Danielle's sister Sharon, her 
brother-in-law David, and their 3-year-old twin girls. When the attack 
began, the family hid in their bomb shelter as Hamas set fire to their 
neighbor's house. The shelter filled with smoke and forced them out to 
face the terrorists. The last time they were heard from was on a phone 
call with a relative. Sharon said, ``I don't think we can survive this, 
I love you'' and hung up.
  While these horrors can test our resolve, the love within these 
families should be an inspiration to all of us. It should strengthen 
our commitment to keep fighting for their safety. In this darkness, we 
must never lose that strength. To quote from an inscription written in 
defiance of the Holocaust, we must ``believe in the sun even when it is 
not shining.'' We must ``believe in love even when feeling it not.''


                 Nomination of Ramon Ernesto Reyes, Jr.

  I would now like to speak about the vote we are about to have on the 
floor. I would like to stand in support of Judge Ramon Reyes, an 
accomplished jurist and dedicated public servant whose breadth of 
experience on and off the bench will make him an outstanding addition 
to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
  On February 9, 2023, Reyes was voted out of committee by a vote of 11 
to 10. All committee Democrats voted aye. Reyes was unanimously rated 
``well qualified'' by the ABA.

[[Page S5393]]

  This nominee was born in Brooklyn. He earned a B.S. from Cornell, a 
J.D. from Brooklyn Law School, and his L.L.M. from New York University 
Law School. In addition to an Eastern District clerkship, Reyes had a 
varied legal practice over the course of 13 years, representing 
corporate defendants in a large firm, helping draft legislation from 
the New York City Council, handling both civil and criminal matters, 
and assisting a U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York.
  Reyes was appointed in 2006 to serve as the Federal magistrate judge 
for the Eastern District of New York. Since taking the bench, Judge 
Reyes has presided over 33 trials--15 jury trials and 18 bench trials. 
They cover a range of cases that come before this district court, 
including criminal matters, employment issues, and civil rights cases.
  With his significant trial experience and depth of knowledge of the 
district to which he has been nominated, Judge Reyes will be a 
tremendous asset to the Eastern District of New York, and I urge my 
colleagues to support him.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.