[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15326-15328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

 NOMINATION OF COLIN STIRLING BRUCE TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 
                  FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

                                 ______
                                 

NOMINATION OF SARA LEE ELLIS TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE 
                     NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations, 
which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read the nominations of Colin Stirling Bruce, 
of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Central 
District of Illinois and Sara Lee Ellis, of Illinois, to be United 
States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 30 
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
  Mr. BEGICH. I ask consent the time be equally charged to both sides 
during the quorum call, and I suggest an absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, what is the parliamentary situation?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is considering judicial nominations 
from a previous order.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today we are going to vote on two of the 
district court nominations pending before the Senate. I am glad we are 
getting to these important nominations, as we should have weeks ago. 
They should have been done in a routine fashion in the normal course of 
events, but there has been this concerted effort to slow down President 
Obama's judges--something we have never seen with other Presidents, but 
we do with him. I am glad that these are at least going through.
  In the same vein, we see a needless government shutdown. I hope it 
comes to an end so the Senate can tend to the business of the country, 
including, as I said on the floor the other day, ensuring that the 
courts have the judges they need. In fact, speaking of judges, they are 
both from Illinois and have the support of Senator Durbin and Senator 
Kirk.
  I ask that my full statement regarding the judges be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               Nominations of Colin Bruce and Sara Ellis

       Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, we will vote on two of the 
     district court nominations pending before the Senate. While I 
     am glad we are considering these important nominations today, 
     I hope that this needless government shutdown soon comes to 
     an end so the Senate can tend to the business of the country, 
     including ensuring that our courts have the judges they need.
       Colin Bruce is nominated to serve on the U.S. District 
     Court for the Central District of Illinois. Mr. Bruce is a 
     lifelong Federal prosecutor who has served in the U.S. 
     Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois for 
     nearly 25 years. He has served as the first assistant U.S. 
     attorney since 2010. He has extensive experience in Federal 
     court and has handled over 600 cases, including 60 jury 
     trials, 3 bench trials, and 80 appeals involving a broad 
     range of issues such as drugs, fraud, national security, and 
     cyber crime.
       Sara Ellis is nominated to serve on the U.S. District Court 
     for the Northern District of Illinois. Ms. Ellis works in 
     private practice in Chicago and also serves as an adjunct 
     professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She has 
     substantial experience litigating in the civil and criminal 
     context, having previously worked as a staff attorney for the 
     Federal Defender Program and as an attorney for the city of 
     Chicago Department of Law. Over her 18-year legal career, she 
     has tried 11 cases to verdict.
       Both of the nominees have the bipartisan support of their 
     home State Senators, Mr. Durbin and Mr. Kirk. They were 
     reported by the Judiciary Committee by voice vote more than 2 
     months ago. While I am pleased that we are finally getting to 
     vote on these nominees, voting on just 2 of the 13 judicial 
     nominees currently pending on the floor is not enough to make 
     real progress in reducing the vacancies on our Federal 
     courts. Our Federal judicial vacancies currently number more 
     than 90, including 39 that have been designated as emergency 
     vacancies due to high caseloads by the nonpartisan 
     Administrative Office of the Courts. There is no good reason 
     for us to not get back to what used to be the regular order 
     in the Senate of taking up and confirming consensus nominees 
     within days of being reported out of committee. We need to 
     get these talented men and women off the Senate calendar and 
     into the courtroom so they can get to work on behalf of the 
     American people.


                          Government Shutdown

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I think I have spoken on the floor every 
day since this happened. In what has become an all-too-familiar scene 
around the Capitol over the past few years as we again find ourselves 
in a stalemate over providing funding to keep the Federal Government 
running. I share the frustration of most Americans--Republicans and 
Democrats--that what was once the regular business of Congress, funding 
the government, has been replaced by political theater and another 
artificial made-in-Congress crisis that might get a number of people on 
television, but while doing it, they imperil the economy, and in ways 
large and small, every single family in America. It makes no difference 
what their politics are, they are in peril.
  Of course, there is an easy way to resolve this fabricated crisis. 
The House of Representatives could simply vote on the Senate bill. It 
is a clean continuing resolution. It has no partisan ideological riders 
on the right or the left. It would provide the funding necessary to 
keep the Federal Government open through November 15, and Speaker 
Boehner could accept the offer Leader Reid made to get on with the 
business of negotiating and passing this year's appropriations bills 
that should have been passed by the end of last month.
  Over the past week, the House has had ample opportunity to end this 
shutdown. They could have passed the Senate's legislation to fund all 
of the Federal agencies and provide Congress with the time it needs to 
find a path forward.
  Yet a faction--not the whole House by any means--of extreme House 
members, supported by their leadership, have prevented the full body 
from voting on the Senate bill. Extreme Republican members--they 
certainly don't represent the kind of Republicans we have in Vermont--
have prevented the full body from voting on the Senate bill.
  Instead, what do they do? They are all collecting their salaries, but 
they closed the government all because they want to erode access to 
affordable, private health care options for millions of uninsured 
Americans. It is unconscionable, and they have not come up with an 
alternative.
  They said: We will get rid of a family's option to keep their 
college-aged children on their health insurance, but we have no 
alternative. We are going to

[[Page 15327]]

get rid of the ability of spouses who may have had a preexisting 
condition, such as cancer or diabetes or a heart condition, from having 
insurance. We are going to get rid of that, but we have nothing as an 
alternative. We are going to eliminate those options, for those--who 
might be low-income persons--to get insurance, but we have no 
alternative. We just want to get rid of it.
  There is no question that this is a crisis driven by a handful of 
partisans on the other side of the aisle for whom there is no path to 
compromise on just about anything. Well, there is one exception. They 
do find every possible opportunity to get in front of a television 
camera and talk about what they have done. The American people ought to 
know what they are doing; they are hurting them terribly.
  Their demands are both constantly shifting and breathtakingly 
unreasonable.
  While the Senate has voted on one flawed House proposal after 
another, the House refuses to vote on anything from the Senate. 
Incredibly, these same extremists--and they are extremists--are now 
threatening to employ this same harmful tactic when the Federal 
Government reaches its statutory borrowing limit in a couple of weeks.
  It is interesting that the Speaker says: We are not going to be able 
to do anything on the debt limit. We saw the stock market, which was 
projected to be up by 150-to-200 points suddenly go down 150 points. 
There was a 300-point swing. In other words, we will continue our 
sloganeering and our stalling no matter what that might do to people's 
savings for retirement, or their pension, or to their kids in college 
or to the small businesses that are trying to make money so they can 
stay in business. We don't care what happens to them because we have to 
be on the evening news and talk about how we are standing up for 
America.
  No, they are not standing up for America.
  In fact, the Treasury Department reported last week that a failure to 
raise the debt limit could cause credit markets to freeze, the dollar 
to plummet, and interest rates to rise precipitously. The report goes 
on to say a government default on its debts might prove so catastrophic 
that it could potentially result ``in a financial crisis and recession 
that could echo the events of 2008 or worse.'' They don't seem to care 
so long as they get on television.
  We have all heard a lot of talk and seen a lot of crocodile tears 
about getting our fiscal House in order. Oh, what a great campaign 
slogan. But too many who got elected with such bumper sticker 
sloganeering are not following through on their constitutional 
responsibility to the government.
  Look at their list of ransom demands for reopening the government: 
The first one blows a $100 billion hole in the national debt by 
repealing the Affordable Care Act. The second one adds $30 billion more 
to the debt without offering any suggestion for making up the revenue. 
The third still keeps important government functions closed, such as 
providing food assistance to young children, expectant mothers, 
seniors, continuing health trials that could cure cancer or childhood 
diseases; and the list goes on and on.
  It is truly unfortunate that a relative few Republicans in Congress, 
who are obviously enjoying the limelight, are willing to play politics 
and brinkmanship at a time when the public demands statesmanship. Their 
reckless actions are hurting families all across America. I would 
remind them they are hurting Democratic families, Republican families, 
Independent families; they are hurting Americans. For this small, 
extreme faction, it seems ``compromise'' is a dirty word and 
``distrust'' is a political tactic. That may explain why we have heard 
excuse after excuse for blocking the budget discipline they so 
desperately pled for just a short time ago. They said: Why don't we 
pass a budget? Why didn't the Senate pass a budget? I was in the chair 
at 5 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday morning when we were voting 
on that budget. We voted all day and all night and we finished it. That 
was back in March.
  So what happens when we want to go to a conference on the budget and 
work out the differences with the House? In a conference, if we counted 
the number of people, there would be more Republicans than Democrats. 
It was a Republican Senator who stood on the floor and said: I object 
to going to conference--the same one who was giving speeches asking why 
we don't have a budget.
  Then, when we pass a budget, we have to go to the next step to work 
it out with the House: Oh, no, I object to that. Probably because he 
was surprised we had actually done our work. The chairwoman of the 
committee, the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray, who did such a 
brilliant job of getting together a budget that saves the taxpayers 
money--they then act terrified that it might actually pass.
  They have objected 19 times to go to that budget conference. They 
have shut down the government. They are preparing to cause the 
government's first ever debt default in our Nation's history. That is 
right. The Speaker of the House is now holding the government's credit 
hostage, threatening this weekend to let the Nation default come 
October 17 when the debt limit is reached unless even more draconian 
spending cuts are made. Is there any reason markets all over the world 
are dropping? Is there any reason the rest of the world looks at 
America and says: What are you doing? Why are you letting the children 
in the sandbox take over?
  We have caught just a preview of the chaos such a move could create. 
Stock futures, as I mentioned, dropped sharply and European stocks 
dropped dramatically in the wake of House Republicans' newest 
ultimatum. This is no way to govern.
  It is also not an example to set for the rest of the world when we 
have to go to the rest of the world and say: Help us, work with us, to 
stop the terrorists who threaten the United States. Help us, work with 
us, so we can export our goods to your country. Help us, work with us 
to bring about stability around the world. They say: You will not do a 
thing to even help yourself. Why should we help you?
  I talked to some of these countries. I talked to the people in those 
countries. They are shaking their heads and saying: What has happened 
to America?
  So it is far past time for reason and sanity to return to Congress, 
on this government shutdown, on setting our budget priorities, and a 
whole host of other issues. Let's let the grownups come back and start 
running things around here.
  I remain ready to work with people on both sides of the aisle. I am 
proud of my record, as the senior-most Member of this body, that year 
after year after year legislation I have written with both Republicans 
and Democrats as cosponsors has passed. The distinguished Presiding 
Officer was Governor of one of the great Commonwealths of this country, 
the Commonwealth of Virginia. He brought Republicans and Democrats 
together. It was a model for the rest of the country. It can be done, 
but it takes grownups to do it. We are always going to have a few loud 
voices saying: Oh, we can't possibly do this.
  The American public expects the people who truly lead to be leaders. 
So let's work with people on both sides of the aisle. Let's find a 
solution that ends this needless shutdown and gets us and hundreds of 
thousands of Federal employees back to doing our work on behalf of the 
American people. That starts with the House voting on the Senate bill 
to reopen the American people's government.
  That bill is sitting over there right now. Bring it to a vote. Vote 
to put Americans back to work and to reopen those trials to find cures 
for childhood diseases, or vote no if some wish to continue to be 
children in the sandbox.
  I am blessed with grandchildren. I like to think none of my 
grandchildren would act as childish as a small group of ultra-rightwing 
Republicans have in the House. They don't reflect the great tradition 
of the Republican Party in my State or in this country. They reflect an 
atmosphere of people who care only for themselves. No matter what they 
say, they care only for their own egos and their own political future. 
It is time they started caring for the United States of America.

[[Page 15328]]

  I see nobody else seeking recognition. I suggest the absence of a 
quorum, and if time is being charged, I ask unanimous consent that it 
be charged on both sides.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, with nobody else seeking recognition, I ask 
unanimous consent that all time be yielded back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The question occurs on the Bruce nomination.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Colin Stirling Bruce, of Illinois, to be United States District 
Judge for the Central District of Illinois?
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Casey), is necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Inhofe), and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Donnelly). Are there any other senators in 
the chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 213 Ex.]

                                YEAS--96

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Chambliss
     Chiesa
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Isakson
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Vitter
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Casey
     Coburn
     Inhofe
     Rubio
  The nomination was confirmed.


                        Vote on Ellis Nomination

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is, 
Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Sarah Lee 
Ellis, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern 
District of Illinois?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to 
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table.
  The President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________