[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3537-3538]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            LYNCH NOMINATION

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, last week the majority leader announced 
that he would finally schedule a vote for this week on the nomination 
of Loretta Lynch to be our next Attorney General. But as of today no 
date has been set. The Senate majority leader is now threatening to 
further delay a vote on this highly qualified nominee until after the 
Senate has concluded its debate on the human trafficking bill.
  Now, there is really no good reason for Senate Republicans to 
continue dragging their feet on scheduling a vote on Ms. Lynch's 
nomination. I have been here long enough to know we can debate 
legislation and vote on nominations at the same time, and to say 
otherwise is a hollow excuse. In fact, last Thursday we voted on four 
other executive nominations while we were on the human trafficking 
bill. We are actually going to vote on two more executive nominations 
this evening while we are on the human trafficking bill.
  All Senators who agree on the importance of ending human trafficking 
also know it is important to confirm Loretta Lynch as our Nation's top 
law enforcement officer. She has a proven track record of prosecuting 
human trafficking and child rape crimes. This is not just somebody who 
just talks about it and says how much they are opposed to human 
trafficking, as though anybody were in favor of human trafficking.
  This not just someone who says she is opposed to child rape cases, as 
though anybody here were going to say they are in favor of it. She has 
actually prosecuted them. Over the course of the last decade, the U.S. 
attorney's office that Ms. Lynch leads has indicted over 55 defendants 
in sex trafficking cases and rescued over 110 victims of sex 
trafficking. We stand here on the floor talking about these issues. She 
actually does it.
  So I think she and the American people have waited long enough. 
President Obama announced the nomination of Ms. Lynch 4 months ago. The 
Judiciary Committee reported her nomination with bipartisan support 18 
days ago. By tomorrow--we talk about whether we move fast or not. By 
tomorrow, her nomination will have been pending on the Senate floor 
longer than all of the past five attorneys general combined.
  Take a look at this. Here is Loretta Lynch. She has been pending on 
the floor now for 18 days. This is, of course, with the months she had 
to wait before that. Now, Attorneys General Holder, Mukasey, Gonzales, 
Ashcroft, and Reno had to wait a total of 18 days pending after their 
nominations came out--so five of them, one of her. She has had to wait 
as long as five of them had to wait.
  We also pointed out the amount of time--I look at the amount of time 
it took--for the four men who preceded her. All four of those men went 
through so much faster than she has. We happened to have a vote out of 
committee. Janet Reno took 1 day. John Ashcroft, who I helped get 
through the committee, although I did not support him, took 2 days. 
Alberto Gonzales took 8 days; Michael Mukasey, 2 days, and Eric Holder, 
5 days.
  This delay is an embarrassment to the Senate. Her qualifications are 
beyond reproach. But the Senate Republican leadership continues to 
delay a vote on her confirmation despite her impeccable credentials. 
Now, when she is confirmed, we know that Loretta Lynch will be the 
first African-American woman to serve our country as Attorney General. 
But instead of moving forward with this historic nomination, Senate 
Republicans appear intent on making history for all of the wrong 
reasons.
  As David Hawkings wrote in a Roll Call article dated March 12:

       Lynch is on a course to be confirmed this month after the 
     longest wait ever for a nominee to be attorney general--and 
     very likely by the closest vote ever to put a new person in 
     charge of the Justice Department.

  We want to send the signal that we are tough on crime. We want to 
send the signal that we want to get these traffickers. We want to send 
a signal that people who commit crimes, whether they are Republicans or 
Democrats, should go to jail. Yet we refuse to confirm the person who 
has actually done all of those things. It appears that some want to 
simply refuse to allow a vote on her nomination, effectively shirking 
the constitutional duty of the Senate to provide advice and consent.
  One Republican Senator even tweeted on the weekend about the need to 
block her historic nomination. Then, in case you overlooked why he was 
doing that, he included a link to a political fundraising Web site. We 
have always kept law enforcement--the FBI Director, the Attorney 
General, anybody in

[[Page 3538]]

law enforcement--out of politics. For a Senator to tweet that we have 
to block this person, and oh, by the way, here is where you can 
contribute to a political campaign--that is wrong.
  It seems likely the Senate will have to file a cloture motion to vote 
to overcome the filibuster of her nomination. That is unprecedented; it 
is unwarranted. No other Attorney General nomination in our history has 
ever been met with a filibuster. We have never needed to have a cloture 
vote on an Attorney General nomination. Yet it seems Republican 
leadership wants to make history for all the wrong reasons.
  I mention this to give us an idea. President George Bush in the last 
2 years of his term--now a lameduck President--nominated Michael 
Mukasey for Attorney General.
  Michael Mukasey was being sent because the last Attorney General had 
done a disastrous job--even though he had been voted for by, I think, 
all Republicans--people will accept the fact now that he politicized 
the prosecutors' offices and everything else, and finally the Bush 
administration had to get rid of him.
  I had just become chairman again, as Democrats had taken back the 
Senate. I moved Attorney General Mukasey through even though I did not 
support him. I felt the President should have a vote on his Attorney 
General. I moved him through in record time.
  She has waited so much more time, multiple times longer than Mukasey.
  This is especially troubling and unfair because Ms. Lynch's 
qualifications for the job are so extraordinary. And her life story is 
equally extraordinary. Born in Greensboro and raised in Durham, NC, 
Loretta Lynch is the daughter of a fourth-generation Baptist preacher 
and a school librarian. They instilled in her the American values of 
fairness and equality, even when those around them were not living up 
to those values. Ms. Lynch has spoken about riding on her father's 
shoulders to their church where students organized peaceful protests 
against racial segregation. The freedom songs and the church music that 
went hand-in-hand with those protests undoubtedly made up the 
soundtrack of her childhood. The Judiciary Committee was honored to 
have her father, Rev. Lorenzo Lynch, with us not only at both days of 
her historic hearing in January but also with us when the committee 
considered his daughter's nomination in February.
  When Loretta Lynch was a young child, Reverend Lynch bravely opened 
his church's basement to the students and others who organized lunch 
counter sit-ins in North Carolina. He taught his only daughter that 
``ideals are wonderful things, but unless you can share them with 
others and make this world a better place, they're just words.'' The 
fact that she has dedicated the majority of her career to public 
service reaffirms that she has lived those ideals of justice in the 
service of others. And yet, Senate Republicans appear intent on 
preventing her from continuing her service--service that we should be 
honored to have.
  Two weekends ago, Ms. Lynch traveled to Selma to honor the 50th 
anniversary of the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, 
where scores of courageous Americans were beaten and trampled on Bloody 
Sunday because they refused to be silent about the need for equal 
protection under the law. It was a weekend when both Democrats and 
Republicans came together. President Obama stood there with President 
George W. Bush beside him, who had signed the last Voting Rights Act. 
They honored the civil rights activists of 50 years ago.
  But I also felt it was a time to reaffirm our shared commitment to 
Americans, as Americans, and the ideals of justice and equality that so 
many of our predecessors have fought and bled for, from our Founding 
Fathers to the foot soldiers for justice on that bridge in Selma.
  Loretta Lynch embodies these ideals. She has devoted her career to 
making them a reality. It is time for Republicans and Democrats to come 
together to confirm this outstanding woman to be the next Attorney 
General. It is time to stop delaying and making excuses for how she is 
being treated. It is time to vote.
  This is reflecting badly on all law enforcement. I hear from so many 
in law enforcement saying: Why are you politicizing this nomination? 
Republicans and Democrats have usually kept law enforcement out of 
politics. Why is this?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired. Senators 
are limited to 10 minutes each.
  Mr. LEAHY. Are we on the trafficking act?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. No, we are in morning business.
  Mr. LEAHY. When do we go on the trafficking act?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning business has expired.
  Mr. LEAHY. I seek recognition.

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