[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 127 (Thursday, July 24, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4689-S4690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to mark an 
important milestone in this new administration. Senate Republicans have 
now confirmed more than 100 nominees in President Trump's second term.
  This is significant progress in filling critical government 
positions. It took relentless procedural battles to accomplish this. It 
included full days and long nights. Why? Because Democrats are waging a 
coordinated campaign of obstruction.
  Under the Constitution, the Senate is meant to provide advice and 
consent. We do it on Presidential nominations. We do it on a number of 
things. Specifically, with regard to nominations, this means an honest 
evaluation of qualifications, and it means a vote in the U.S. Senate. 
Now, for more than 6 months, Senate Democrats have turned advice and 
consent into automatic opposition. It doesn't just delay President 
Trump; it damages the country.
  Democrats have filibustered all but one of President Trump's 
nominees, and he was the very first nominee, Marco Rubio to be 
Secretary of State. He was confirmed on day one of the administration. 
Since then, it has been a wall of obstruction. Democrats have 
filibustered positions requiring confirmation that have never before 
even had a rollcall vote in the U.S. Senate; they have gone by 
unanimous consent. Democrats filibustered the Chief of Protocol for the 
State Department--the Chief of Protocol. Democrats filibustered the 
Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security. They 
filibustered the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and 
Engineering. Today, 138 nominees who have already been approved by a 
full vote in the Senate committees are caught here--in Senate floor 
purgatory.
  Democrats in the Senate seem to have a new litmus test: If President 
Trump nominates you, Democrats are against you--period, end of story. 
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed four nominees: the Assistant Secretary 
of Commerce for Communications and Information, the Under Secretary of 
Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, a district judge for the 
Eastern District of Missouri, and the Assistant Administrator at the 
Environmental Protection Agency--all qualified, all vetted, all 
experienced. Each and every one was filibustered. The Democrats forced 
the Senate to burn every minute of available time before the Senate was 
permitted to vote.
  When Democrats delay nominations and nominees--people specifically

[[Page S4690]]

charged to fight drug trafficking, to protect the environment, to track 
terrorists--it delays justice, and it makes our Nation weaker and less 
safe. It tells Americans that Democrats care more about politics than 
they do about problem-solving.
  Now Democrats are targeting President Trump's nominee to the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. We just heard the Senate 
minority leader talk about that nominee. By any objective measure, Mr. 
Bove is qualified--Georgetown law, in the top 5 percent of his class, a 
decorated former prosecutor, someone who took on and took down violent 
criminals, drug traffickers, and terrorists--but because he worked for 
President Trump, he is now a target--a target of a politically 
motivated hit job.
  During his confirmation, he said this under oath:

       I have never advised a Department of Justice attorney to 
     violate a court order.

  The facts support his testimony.
  So, today, Senator Schumer came to the floor and said of Mr. Bove 
that he was ``as extreme as anyone we have considered in this 
Chamber.'' Let me recall for the body some of the people who were 
nominated under the Biden administration and were supported by Chuck 
Schumer when he makes an attack on such a qualified nominee as we are 
debating and discussing and voting on today.
  The Democrats confirmed as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts someone 
who released a list of charges that she would refuse to prosecute if 
she were confirmed. She said: I refuse to prosecute shoplifting and 
drug possession with an intent to distribute--which was OK under the 
Democrats. They wanted her confirmed as a U.S. attorney, and they did 
that for Massachusetts.
  They also confirmed in 2021, under Joe Biden, an Assistant Attorney 
General who supported efforts to ``defund the police''--an Attorney 
General wanting to defund the police.
  Then they supported and nominated and confirmed a judge for the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, a judge who worked for a 
leftwing organization who--listen to this, Democrats--repeatedly called 
for a complete reimagining of policing in this country.
  That is what they are for. That is who they are. That is the 
Democrats today.
  The kicker of all of this is that the Democrats' radical nominee for 
the Third Circuit in 2024--this same position opposed by more than 20 
police groups--20 police groups--served on the board of advisers of a 
group that called cop killers freedom fighters. The Democrats came to 
support a nominee by then-President Joe Biden who was a member of a 
board of advisers for a group that called cop killers freedom fighters 
and advocated for their release. Nevertheless, Democrats strongly 
supported the confirmation. They relented only after President Trump 
won the election.
  Republicans are working hard to get America back on track.