[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 2156-2157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I start with a statement the Republican 
leader made on the Senate floor in 2007: ``I will never agree to 
retreat from our responsibility to confirm qualified judicial 
nominees.''

[[Page 2157]]

  I wish to repeat: ``I will never agree to retreat from our 
responsibility to confirm qualified judicial nominees.''
  My Republican counterpart said that. They are his own words.
  Fast forward 9 years to today, now. Not only is the senior Senator 
from Kentucky abandoning his responsibility to confirm a Supreme Court 
Justice, he is leading the entire Republican caucus to retreat from 
their constitutional obligation. This is unfortunate because the 
Republican leader was right 9 years ago. As Senators, we have a 
responsibility to uphold a number of things, but one certainly is the 
Constitution. That responsibility is clearly outlined in the oath we 
take before we are sworn into office--right there. Every one of them 
has done it. What are we asked to confirm, to swear to? We swear to 
``support and defend the Constitution of the United States.'' We swear 
to ``bear true faith and allegiance to the same.'' We swear to 
``faithfully discharge the duties of office.'' I wish to repeat that. 
We swear to ``faithfully discharge the duties of office.''
  One cannot see how Republicans can claim to uphold this oath as they 
block the President from appointing a new Supreme Court Justice. Senate 
Republicans are making pledges of a different sort these days. They 
have vowed to not hold hearings--even though denying a hearings is 
unprecedented in history. They have sworn not to meet with the 
President--I am sorry, with his nominee and maybe even him. He has been 
waiting for word from the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the 
Republican leader to find out if they are willing to come and meet with 
him in the White House. That has been going on for several days now. 
They have sworn not to meet with the President's Supreme Court nominee, 
even though they don't know who that person might be. By refusing to 
hold confirmation hearings for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee 
or to hold a vote, they undermine the Presidency, the Constitution, and 
the Senate.
  Senate Republicans are known--and have been for some time now--as a 
set of human brake pads, obstructing, filibustering virtually 
everything President Obama has had on his agenda, but this raises 
obstruction to a new level never seen before in this country--the 
Supreme Court: no hearings, no vote, and yesterday even more. They even 
refuse to meet with this man or woman who is going to be nominated--no 
meetings, no meetings with the nominee to the Supreme Court, a person 
put forth by the President of the United States because the 
Constitution states he shall nominate. He has no discretion, he shall 
nominate.
  By refusing to even sit or talk with any nominee, they make a mockery 
of the office to which the American people elected them.
  Think about this. Republicans will not do their due diligence by 
speaking with a nominee to assess his or her qualifications. Meeting 
with the nominee is basic. Holding a hearing is routine. These things 
are common sense, so why won't Republican Senators make an effort to 
uphold their constitutional responsibilities?
  U.S. Senators have an obligation to evaluate the Presidential 
nominations, not only for the Supreme Court but for every nomination 
that comes forward--but especially the Supreme Court. That means 
sitting down with the nominee. That means holding hearings to learn 
about their record and qualifications for the position, and that means 
a vote.
  The senior Senator from Texas said the same about 7 years ago. After 
Justice Sonia Sotomayor was nominated, the assistant Republican leader 
told C-SPAN that ``my own view is that we ought to come with an open 
mind and do the research and do the reading . . . and then be able to 
ask the nominee about them.''
  What he said, the senior Senator from Texas, is that his view is that 
we ought to come with an open mind, do the research, do the reading, 
and then be able to ask the nominee about them. I agree. The Senate 
should be able to research the background of the President's Supreme 
Court nominee and ask any questions they may have about them. Why--
why--for the first time in history, do we have this situation? Why do 
Republicans--the Republican Senator from Texas, whom I just quoted, and 
all Republicans--refuse to even meet with a nominee?
  I say to my Republican friends, you cannot offer advice and consent 
on a nominee you have never met, never considered. It is impossible. 
Maybe Republicans are hoping the Supreme Court vacancy will just go 
away, but it will not. Maybe Senate Republicans think they will only 
endure a few weeks of negative stories--and there have been negative 
stories, of course. There are no positive stories that I am aware of 
saying: That is great. For the first time in history you are not even 
willing to meet with a nominee. I guess they believe the American 
people will forget about this vacancy, but they will not.
  Democrats are going to fight every day to ensure that this important 
nominee gets a dignified confirmation process that past Senates have 
afforded all Supreme Court nominations. I, along with every other 
Member of the Democratic caucus, will be on the floor next week, the 
week after that, and the week after that, as long as it takes, to bring 
to the attention of America the failure of this Republican Senate to 
meet its constitutional mandate.
  Pretending the nominee doesn't exist will not make the Supreme Court 
vacancy go away. It will not make the President's nomination vanish. 
Rather, it leaves the American people with a Senate full of Republicans 
who, as the Republican leader said, are ``retreating from their 
responsibilities.'' That is what the Republican leader said. Their 
obstruction of the President's Supreme Court nominee is abdication of 
the oath my Republican colleagues took when they assumed the title of 
U.S. Senator.
  Once again I tell my Republican friends: Don't run away from your 
responsibilities, just do your job. Do your job.
  Mr. President, will the Chair announce the business of the day.

                          ____________________