[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15792-15793]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session.
  The majority leader.


            Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding 
rule XXII, following the cloture vote on Executive Calendar No. 858, 
the Senate consider Calendar Nos. 1050, 898, 961, and 533--these are 
career ambassadors, in case anyone wants to know--that there be 2 
minutes of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their 
designees prior to each vote; that upon the use or yielding back of 
time the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on 
the nominations in the order listed; that any rollcall votes following 
the first in the series be 10 minutes in length; that if any nomination 
is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon 
the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions 
be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the 
nomination be printed in the Record; and that the President be 
immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there any objection?
  Mr. REID. We expect these nominations to be approved by voice vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today we will vote to end Republican 
filibusters on three district court nominations for Georgia, two of 
which are judicial emergency vacancies. The Senate should not need to 
waste our time jumping through these procedural hurdles to confirm 
nominees who are strongly supported by two Republican home State 
Senators.
  After we vote to invoke cloture and confirm these three nominees, we 
will still have 17 judicial nominees pending on the Executive 
Calendar--11 to serve on district courts and 6 to serve on the U.S. 
Court of Federal Claims. Another nine judicial nominees will be 
recommended by the Judiciary Committee this Thursday. By the end of the 
week, there will be 26 nominees reported favorably by the Judiciary 
Committee pending before the full Senate. All but a few of these 
nominees will have been reported unanimously and several are from 
States with at least one and sometimes two Republican home State 
Senators, including: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Missouri, 
Illinois, and Texas. These nominees should all be confirmed before we 
recess in December. As I mentioned last week, I hope that Senate 
Republicans will work with Senate Democrats to ``clear the decks'' on 
pending business before the end of the 113th Congress, as the incoming 
majority leader has suggested.
  So let us work together as we have in past lameduck sessions to get 
these nominees confirmed and serving their communities. In 2002, after 
the midterm elections, Senate Democrats worked to confirm all 20 of 
President Bush's judicial nominees pending on the Executive Calendar 
all but one by voice vote. In the 2006 lameduck session, after Senate 
Democrats won the majority in the elections, Democrats agreed to 
confirm all 14 of President Bush's judicial nominations pending on the 
Executive Calendar, but this package was blocked by a Republican 
Senator. In the most recent lameduck sessions, in 2010 and 2012, a 
total of 32 judicial nominees were confirmed. We should do the same 
now.
  Leslie Abrams is nominated to fill a vacancy in the U.S. District 
Court for the Middle District of Georgia. She is currently an assistant 
U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District 
of Georgia. Prior to

[[Page 15793]]

becoming an assistant U.S. attorney, she was in private practice at two 
nationally known law firms. After graduating from Yale Law School, Ms. 
Abrams served as a law clerk to Judge Marvin J. Garbis on the U.S. 
District Court for the District of Maryland.
  Mark Cohen is nominated to fill an emergency vacancy in the U.S. 
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He has extensive 
experience, having practiced for over 30 years in both the public and 
private sectors. Currently a partner at the law firm Troutman Sanders, 
Mr. Cohen has also served as counsel to former Georgia Governor, Zell 
Miller, and spent part of his legal career at the Georgia office of the 
attorney general.
  Eleanor Ross is nominated to fill an emergency vacancy in the U.S. 
District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She currently 
serves as a State court judge in DeKalb County, where she has presided 
over hundreds of cases dealing with both civil and criminal matters. 
Prior to becoming a judge, she served in various capacities as both a 
State and Federal prosecutor for over a decade. Throughout her legal 
career, she has tried over 150 cases to verdict.
  All three of these nominees have the strong support of their 
Republican home State Senators, Senator Chambliss and Senator Isakson. 
All three were also reported unanimously from the Judiciary Committee 5 
months ago by voice vote.
  If confirmed, Leslie Abrams and Eleanor Ross will be the first 
African-American women to ever serve as Federal judges in the State of 
Georgia. This historic moment is long overdue.
  In the few remaining days of this Congress, I hope that the 
Republican Senators who recommended many of the pending judicial 
nominees to the President will work within their caucus to get consent 
to confirm nominees to their own home States.
  I hope that all Senators will vote to end the filibuster of these 
nominations today and confirm them.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 2 
minutes of debate equally divided prior to a vote on the motion to 
invoke cloture on the Abrams nomination.
  Mr. REID. I yield back all time on this nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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