[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2918-2919]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: 
Calendar Nos. 564, 570, 566, and 567--these are district court judges 
for the District of Connecticut, the Eastern District of Arkansas, the 
Northern District of California, and the Northern District of 
California--that the nominations be confirmed en bloc; the motions to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no 
intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to 
any of the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the 
Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's 
action and the Senate then resume legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Republican whip.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, as everyone

[[Page 2919]]

knows, last year our friends on the other side of the aisle invoked the 
so-called nuclear option. The stated reason was to strip the minority 
of any ability to stop any executive or judicial nominees on the floor. 
But, in fact, prior to the President's attempt to fill up the DC 
Circuit Court with judges they didn't need, the Senate actually had a 
very good record of confirming the President's judicial nominees, 215 
to 2.
  Now the majority leader would like to short-circuit the process which 
was put in place as a result of the nuclear option and seek to get 
confirmation of these judicial nominees by unanimous consent. My hope 
would be that the majority leader would choose to reverse the partisan 
rules change so we can go back to the bipartisan cooperative process 
which resulted in more than 200 Obama judges being confirmed.
  Absent that, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The majority leader.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate my friend's understanding of 
what has happened, and we will have further conversations about this.

                          ____________________