[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5017-5018]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            LYNCH NOMINATION

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Loretta Lynch's nomination to be Attorney 
General has languished on the Senate floor for 48 days. This 
unnecessary wait time is twice as long as the last seven Attorney 
General nominees combined. Under any standard, she is not being treated 
fairly. For nearly 7 weeks, she has waited for her confirmation vote to 
be scheduled by the majority leader. She has now earned the support to 
be confirmed, and if the leader would simply schedule her vote, this 
eminently qualified prosecutor could get to work as our next Attorney 
General.
  Last month, after Ms. Lynch's nomination had already been pending on 
the floor for weeks, the majority leader inexplicably chose to hold her 
nomination hostage until he got his way on a partisan provision in 
unrelated legislation. That Loretta Lynch is being denied a 
confirmation vote over human trafficking legislation is a cruel irony 
since she has a proven record of prosecuting child rapists and human 
traffickers. If Members want a prosecutor with a deep commitment to 
fighting human trafficking, then they should support Loretta Lynch.
  The American people deserve to know that while the majority leader 
said he would block a confirmation vote on Ms. Lynch until we passed 
unrelated legislation, the Senate has voted 74 times on other matters. 
If the Senate can vote on a Republican budget, legislation to increase 
payments to doctors, and on the confirmation of several other nominees, 
then of course we can and should vote on the nomination of our Nation's 
next chief law enforcement officer. There is simply no excuse.

[[Page 5018]]

  Every additional day that Ms. Lynch's nomination languishes on the 
floor is another day Senate Republicans fail to govern responsibly. 
This Congress, it took more than 3 months for Senate Republicans to 
schedule a vote on a single judicial nominee. And even though the 
Senate finally did confirm a district court nominee this week, nine 
more judicial nominees are waiting to be considered. This is no way to 
respect the dedicated public servants who have been nominated and no 
way to treat our coequal branches of government.
  The Republican leader has the opportunity to show the American people 
what we can do when we work together. He should call Loretta Lynch's 
nomination up for a vote without further delay.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to engage in a 
colloquy with my colleague from Maine.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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