[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5234-5235]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            LYNCH NOMINATION

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it has been 165 days--5\1/2\ months--since 
the nomination of Loretta Lynch to be Attorney General was announced. 
Ms. Lynch has been pending on the Senate Executive Calendar for nearly 
2 months. She was reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 
bipartisan vote--nine Democrats and three Republicans--on February 26. 
This is a new record, sadly, in terms of delay in appointing an 
Attorney General. The last seven nominees to be Attorney General of the 
United States combined--combined--waited on the Senate floor 24 days--
seven nominees, 24 days.
  Sadly, Ms. Lynch has now been waiting over 50 days. Why? What is it 
about this nominee that causes so much of a problem? Nothing came up at 
the Judiciary Committee hearing to suggest a problem. Yes, she was 
appointed by Barack Obama. Yes, she has said she will serve this 
President. But when it came to her personally, there was nothing. In 
fact, we have this tradition that after the nominee has testified under 
oath, then experts are brought in. Each party can bring an expert in to 
testify for or against the Attorney General nominee. Senator Patrick 
Leahy, the ranking Democrat on Judiciary, said to the assembled group--
I think there may have been 10 or 12 of these outside witnesses: Which 
of you, by show of hands, objects to the nomination of Loretta Lynch 
for Attorney General? Not a single one raised his hand--none. So even 
the witnesses that were brought to speak in negative terms all conceded 
that she should be Attorney General.
  That is rare. It is rare to have a nominee with that kind of 
affirmation come out of the Senate Judiciary Committee--and for good 
reason. When you look at her record, you can understand why. This young 
woman has an extraordinary record of service. She grew up in North 
Carolina as the daughter of a minister and a school librarian. Her dad 
was there at her hearing. Her father was smiling as she recalled those 
instances when she was a very young girl, and he would sit her on his 
shoulders and take her to see the civil rights events that occurred 
when she was so young.
  She received her undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard 
University. She has private sector experience at prestigious law firms. 
She has twice been confirmed unanimously by the Senate to serve as U.S. 
attorney for the Eastern District of New York. She served in that 
position with distinction.
  Her nomination has been endorsed by a wide range of groups, 
representing law enforcement, prosecutors, bar associations, business 
leaders, civil rights organizations, and former Justice Department 
officials from both Democratic and Republican administrations. In what 
may be one of the most amazing ironies of this whole situation, Loretta 
Lynch has been recognized as a leader when it comes to prosecuting 
human traffickers. Why is that significant? Because the Republican 
leader announced that he was holding up her nomination until we passed 
a bill on human trafficking.
  Here is a woman who, as a prosecutor and professional, has prosecuted 
the people guilty of that crime, and she is being delayed in her 
appointment as Attorney General of the United States of America because 
of a political debate on the floor of the Senate for almost 4 weeks 
over this bill.
  Under Ms. Lynch's leadership, the U.S. Attorney's office in the 
Eastern District of New York has brought many important prosecutions in 
human trafficking. In United States v. Lopez,

[[Page 5235]]

three brothers were convicted in 2014 for running a human trafficking 
ring involving 14- and 15-year-old girls. Ms. Lynch was also involved 
in the successful prosecution of the Granados-Hernandez sex trafficking 
ring, in which numerous child trafficking victims were reunited with 
their mothers. In United States v. Johnson, Ms. Loretta Lynch was 
involved in a prosecution where a Queens man was convicted for 
trafficking and prostituting a 15-year-old girl out of his home.
  Make no mistake, when it comes to the issue of human trafficking, 
this nominee for Attorney General knows more about the subject than 
most, and she has a record to prove it. Malika Saada Saar, the 
executive director of Rights4Girls, is one of the Nation's leading 
antitrafficking advocates. She said: ``It is clear that as the top 
prosecutor in Brooklyn, New York, Lynch has a strong record of being 
tough on crime and human trafficking.'' She has been held up on the 
floor because of our failure to pass a bill on that same subject.
  Here is what the President of the National District Attorneys 
Association, Michael Moore, said about Ms. Loretta Lynch when he wrote 
to express his organization's strong support for her: ``As prosecutors 
facing challenges in the field from violent crime, to human 
trafficking, to gangs and drug traffickers, our membership feels that 
Ms. Lynch understands the operational nature of these challenges and 
will be a strong independent voice at the helm of the Department.''
  Calling a vote on Ms. Lynch and confirming her would be a big step 
forward in the fight against trafficking. It is time to end this delay 
and obstruction. This extraordinary woman nominated by the President of 
the United States to be the first African-American woman to serve as 
Attorney General should have been approved by the Senate long ago. 
While she has been waiting patiently for a long, long time, we have 
interrupted the business of the Senate to approve the President's 
appointments for Assistant Secretary of Transportation, Assistant 
Secretary of Commerce, Federal Mine Safety and Health Review 
Commissioners, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board Members, 
Undersecretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security, 
Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, and several Federal 
judges.
  We have had more than adequate opportunity to call Ms. Lynch for 
approval. Let us not leave Washington this week without voting on 
Loretta Lynch to be our next Attorney General. I voted for her in 
committee and will proudly support her nomination in the hopes that it 
will come to the floor this week.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the 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.

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