[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 149 (Tuesday, September 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6347-S6348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Unanimous Consent Request--Executive Calendar

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I am rising right now to speak about the 
urgency to quickly confirm two bipartisan members to the U.S. 
Sentencing Commission. Time is really of the essence as the term of two 
voting members, Judge Claria Horn Boom and Judge John Gleeson, will 
expire this Congress.

[[Page S6348]]

  For decades, the Senate has come together and confirmed all 
Commissioners to the Sentencing Commission by a voice vote and, on one 
occasion, two members by unanimous consent after they had been 
considered by the Judiciary Committee. This used to be just something 
easily done. There is no reason to depart from this incredible 
bipartisan precedent. We must confirm these two nominees today.
  Just as a reminder, Congress created the Sentencing Commission in 
1984 as an independent Agency, housed in the judicial branch, to reduce 
sentencing disparities and to promote transparency and proportionality 
in sentencing. By statute, the Commission must have bipartisan 
representation amongst its members. It calls for our coming together. 
This mandate reflects the consensus-driven, evidence-based approach 
Congress has envisioned in making Federal criminal sentencing fairer 
and more balanced for the United States of America.
  The Sentencing Commission plays a critical role in our Federal legal 
system. It establishes sentencing policies and practices for Federal 
courts, and it promulgates and amends the sentencing guidelines, which 
serve as the cornerstone for every Federal judge when deciding a 
criminal sentence. It is deeply imperative that the Commission maintain 
a full slate of voting members to continue this profound work.
  Recent history has shown us what happens when the Commission is 
deprived of its full membership. From 2019 to 2022, the Commission 
lacked a voting quorum and could not update the sentencing guidelines 
in response to new Federal criminal statutes, including the big 
bipartisan work we did to get the First Step Act passed and signed by 
Donald Trump. Without direction on how to implement the new provisions 
and criminal penalties, circuit courts split over the proper 
interpretation of the guidelines, resulting in disparate sentences for 
people who are dependent solely on which circuit court they were tried 
in. In other words, there was no equal justice under the law. There 
wasn't fairness or proportionality.
  So, consistent with this Commission's mandate, these nominees have to 
and will need to continue to function in our bipartisan way--the 
vision. It is up to us to work in this bipartisan way. Therefore, I ask 
now to confirm two bipartisan members of the U.S. Sentencing 
Commission, Judge Claria Horn Boom and Judge Gleeson.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the 
following nominations en bloc: Calendar Nos. 602 and 603; that the 
Senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or 
debate; that if confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made 
and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of 
the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Alabama.
  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, 
therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. That 
word is difficult to say, but it seems like that happened quicker than 
even my saying that word. With something so important as this, I was 
hoping for more of an understanding of why this is being blocked.
  Again, perhaps one of the greatest marks of this institution, in my 
10 years of experience, has been the times we have come together--
multiple times--to make our justice system more just.
  This seems, to me, to be obstructionist to the hopes that we can be a 
nation that ends this partisanship, that ends this unnecessary 
partisanship--excuse me--and that ends the sort of tribalism that is 
making this institution less operative.
  We all come here from various parts of our great Nation to get things 
done, and there seems to be this pattern in the United States of 
America of our finding less comity, less togetherness.
  I love what Martin Luther King said; that we are all caught in an 
inescapable network of mutuality, tied with a garment of destiny, in 
that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
  When it comes to the exercise of justice in our country, it is clear, 
by not having a bipartisan majority sitting on this body, that we 
create injustice, which, ultimately, hurts our democracy and our 
highest ideals.
  We started this day by pledging allegiance to that flag, where we 
said with ``liberty and justice for all.'' It pains me today, with the 
stopping of this unanimous consent, that we are not fulfilling the 
hopes and aspirations of that pledge.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. 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. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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