[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1433-1434]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, 
which the clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Rebecca Goodgame 
Ebinger, of Iowa, to be United States District Judge for the Southern 
District of Iowa.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 30 
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
  The Senator from Georgia.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                      Tribute to Richard Anderson

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, on Friday of last week as I was getting 
ready to leave to go home to the State of Georgia, the United States of 
America, and the aviation industry received notice that Richard 
Anderson, CEO of Delta Airlines, will retire after a career of over 25 
years in the aviation industry, but in particular a great career at 
Delta Airlines over the last decade. I rise to memorialize on the floor 
of the Senate how much my State and the aviation industry owes to 
Richard Anderson.
  Richard took over Delta at a very critical time. In fact, Delta was 
in desperate straits. Because of his work at Delta, he revitalized the 
culture of the company, he revitalized the aviation industry in 
Georgia, and he made it a market for all of us to be proud of. In fact, 
in 1 year, 2 years ago, Delta was one of the 50 most admired companies 
in the United States of America and led the world in terms of aviation 
as stated by Aviation Magazine, but most importantly Richard Anderson 
came to Washington, DC, when all the aviation industry was in trouble. 
He was then with Northwest. Delta was having difficulties. He worked 
with the U.S. Senate, worked with the Finance Committee, worked with 
me, Mike Enzi, and others to reform the pension performance act of 
2005, and change the way pensions were calculated in order to save the 
pensions of Delta Airlines and many other airlines in the United States 
of America. His hands-on effort to revitalize that company led to the 
most prosperous year in its history in 2016, and the most prosperous 
decade it had in the last 10 years.
  So as he announces he is leaving Delta Airlines and the aviation 
industry for other things to do, I want to, on the floor of the Senate, 
commend him for all he has done to make Delta Airlines in the State of 
Georgia great, all he has done for the aviation industry, and all he 
has done for the economy of the greatest country on the face of this 
Earth--the United States of America.
  I yield back the remainder of my time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today the Senate will vote on the 
nomination of Judge Ebinger from Iowa. I am very pleased to be here to 
support her and to urge all my colleagues to also support her 
nomination.
  I am very proud of the work my colleague Senator Ernst and I have 
done to fill the vacancies in Iowa's district courts by putting forward 
two exceptionally talented and qualified nominees, Judges Ebinger and 
Strand. I said this in committee but, for the benefit of all Members of 
the Senate, the Iowa nominees are two of the best judicial candidates 
the President has nominated during his Presidency.
  To fill the vacancies in Iowa, I set up a Judicial Selection 
Commission and invited all interested Iowa lawyers to apply. The 
applicants were vetted by highly qualified members of the Iowa legal 
community. After spending hundreds of hours reviewing the applications, 
the Commission interviewed all 39 applicants. Eleven candidates of the 
thirty-nine were then selected for a lengthy second round of 
interviews. At the end of the process, the Commission sent their 
recommendations to me. In consultation with my fellow Iowa Senator, I 
was proud to recommend Judges Strand and Ebinger to the White House. 
Judges Strand and Ebinger have the highest credentials and character 
and will serve the State of Iowa with honor and with distinction.
  I would like to say a little bit more about Judge Ebinger because she 
is the one of the two we are voting on today. Judge Ebinger received 
her undergraduate degree in 1997 from Georgetown University School of 
Foreign Service and her law degree from Yale Law School in 2004. She 
then served as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney's 
Office for the Northern District of Iowa in Cedar Rapids. There, she 
prosecuted criminal cases involving narcotics, immigration, firearms 
offenses, and violent crimes. She then clerked for Judge Michael Melloy 
on the Eighth Circuit for 2 years, also in Cedar Rapids, IA.
  Following her clerkship, she moved to the U.S. Attorney's Office for 
the Southern District of Iowa as an assistant U.S. attorney. During 
this time, her practice shifted primarily to white-collar crime. She 
also handled intake for all child support enforcement cases and sex 
offender registry violations.
  Judge Ebinger received a number of awards for her work with the U.S. 
Attorney's Office. In 2012, she was appointed to serve as a district 
judge in Iowa State court and was retained as a district judge in the 
2014 election. As a State court judge, she presided over a court of 
general jurisdiction, handling civil law and equity, criminal, and 
family court proceedings. She has presided over 40 cases that have gone 
to verdict or trial.
  Judge Ebinger is a highly qualified, well-respected judge already, 
and I urge my colleagues to support her nomination today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today we will vote on the nomination of 
Rebecca Ebinger to fill a judicial vacancy in the Federal district 
court in the southern district of Iowa.
  Ms. Ebinger is a highly qualified nominee who has devoted her legal 
career to public service. Since 2012, she has served as a district 
judge in Iowa State court. Prior to joining the bench, Judge Ebinger 
served as a prosecutor at the Federal and State levels in Iowa, 
including in the U.S. attorney's offices for the southern and northern 
districts of Iowa. During her tenure as a Federal prosecutor, she was 
the lead attorney on cases involving violence against women. Judge 
Ebinger has the strong support of her home State Senators, Chairman 
Grassley of the Judiciary Committee and Senator Ernst.
  With her qualifications, I can understand why Chairman Grassley 
recommended her to the President for this nomination. What I cannot 
understand is why moneyed Washington interest groups are calling on 
Republican Senators to oppose the confirmation of any judicial nominee, 
regardless of a nominee's merit or qualifications. Judicial nominees 
like Judge Ebinger have worked hard to build admirable legal careers 
that have put them at the top of their profession. When judicial 
nominees submit themselves to the nominations process, they do so 
expecting and deserving to be considered by Senators exercising their 
own independent judgement.
  Judicial nominees not only deserve our independent and considered 
judgement, it is our constitutional obligation as Senators to provide 
it. The duty to provide advice and consent on the President's nominees 
is our own and cannot be abdicated to Washington political action 
committees. This is especially true when such political action 
committees are advocating that we turn our backs on the American people 
by completely shutting down the judicial confirmation process.
  Too many Americans who have sought justice in our Federal courts

[[Page 1434]]

since last year have instead found delays and empty courtrooms because 
of Senate Republicans' obstruction on judicial nominees. Over the 
course of last year, Senate Republicans allowed confirmation votes on 
just 11 judicial nominees--and judicial vacancies soared across the 
country. When Senate Republicans took over the majority in January of 
last year, there were 43 judicial vacancies. Since then, vacancies have 
dramatically increased to 77--an increase of more than 75 percent. 
Furthermore, the number of judicial vacancies deemed to be 
``emergencies'' by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts because 
caseloads in those courts are unmanageably high has nearly tripled 
under Republican Senate leadership--from 12 when Republicans took over 
last year to 32 today. Refusing to confirm any judicial nominees for 
the rest of this year would make the high number of vacancies in our 
Federal judiciary even worse.
  In addition to the vote on Judge Ebinger's confirmation today, we 
have agreed to vote this week on another Iowa district court judge. 
When we return from the Presidents' Day recess, I hope Republicans will 
continue confirming judicial nominees with bipartisan support, as 
Democrats did when we held the majority. In 2008, when I was chairman 
of the committee with a Republican President, we worked to confirm 
judicial nominees as late as September of the Presidential election 
year. In fact, Senate Democrats helped confirm all 10 of President 
Bush's district court nominees pending on the Senate floor in a single 
day by unanimous consent on September 26, 2008. This was similarly true 
in 2004, when I was ranking member of the committee with a Republican 
President, and we worked to confirm nominees as late as September of 
the Presidential election year.
  There are 19 judicial nominees awaiting confirmation on the Senate 
floor. The next judicial nominee pending after we return from the 
President's Day recess will be Waverly Crenshaw, an exceptional 
African-American district court nominee from Tennessee who has the 
support of his Republican home State Senators, Senators Alexander and 
Corker. I hope the Senators from Tennessee will be able to convince 
their majority leader to schedule the Tennessee nominee's vote to occur 
this month. This is an emergency judicial vacancy in their State, so it 
is clear that this position is sorely needed for Tennesseans to receive 
swift justice in the middle district of Tennessee.
  I urge my fellow Senators to vote to confirm Judge Ebinger and look 
forward to working with my fellow Senators to ensure timely 
confirmation of the other judicial nominees pending before the Senate.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. 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. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I yield back time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, all time is yielded back.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Ebinger 
nomination?
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. 
Cotton), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from South 
Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Nevada (Mr. Heller), the 
Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. 
McCain), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), the Senator from 
Nebraska (Mr. Sasse), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis), the 
Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. 
Vitter), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer), 
the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from New Hampshire 
(Mrs. Shaheen), and the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) are 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 83, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 18 Ex.]

                                YEAS--83

     Alexander
     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Boozman
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Grassley
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Udall
     Warner
     Warren
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--17

     Blunt
     Boxer
     Cotton
     Cruz
     Graham
     Heller
     Johnson
     McCain
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Sasse
     Shaheen
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Vitter
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President will 
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________