[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 2890-2891]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk 
about what I have been hearing from people in Wyoming about the issue 
of whether President Obama should nominate the next Supreme Court 
Justice.
  This past last weekend, I was around the State of Wyoming in Rock 
Springs, in Rawlings, and in Casper and the weekend before that, as 
well, in Casper, Cheyenne, and Big Piney. I am hearing the same thing 
from all around the State of Wyoming.
  What I am hearing is that President Obama should not be the one to 
put another nominee on the Supreme Court and that it should come down 
to the people: Give the people a voice. That is what I am hearing back 
home.
  The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley, is doing 
exactly what the people of Wyoming are insisting upon--the right thing. 
He is doing the right thing by insisting that the American people 
decide. I think Senator Grassley is doing a great service to this body, 
to the American people, and also to whomever the next President 
nominates for the Supreme Court.
  On Monday, after traveling around the State of Wyoming, Senator Enzi, 
who had also traveled around the State of Wyoming this past weekend, 
and I jointly held a telephone townhall meeting. Folks at home are very 
familiar with these. We do these just about every month. We have a 
chance to visit with people about what is on their mind. Then there is 
a little way you can do a poll during that telephone townhall meeting, 
and 88 percent of the people of Wyoming agree with Senator Grassley, 
agree with Senator Enzi and with me about the next Supreme Court 
Justice and giving the people a voice.
  Democrats want to turn this all around into a fight on the Senate 
floor. They want this to be a backroom deal between the President and 
the special interest groups. These are the groups that are pushing the 
President to appoint someone who will rule the way they want. But that 
is not what the American people want.
  The American people--and certainly the people in Wyoming--want this 
to be a fight about what happens and what they decide in the voting 
booth in November. When an election is just months away, the people 
should be allowed to consider possible Supreme Court nominees as one 
factor in deciding whom they will support for President. This shouldn't 
really even be controversial.
  Democrats in the past have come to the floor, and they said it would 
be a bad idea to let the President make a lifetime appointment in his 
last months in office. In 1992 Senator Joe Biden came to the Senate 
floor to explain his rule. He called it the Biden rule, and it had to 
do with Supreme Court nominations.
  On the Senate floor, Joe Biden--now the Vice President, former 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee--said that once the Presidential 
election is underway--and I will tell you, Madam President, the 
Presidential election is underway--``action on a Supreme Court 
nomination must be put off until after the election campaign is over.''
  Those are the words of Joe Biden. Senator Biden said that a temporary 
vacancy on the Court was ``quite minor compared to the cost that a 
nominee, the President, the Senate, and our Nation would have to pay 
for what assuredly would be a bitter fight.''

[[Page 2891]]

  That is what Senator Biden at the time was worried about. He was 
worried that a bitter fight over a nominee would do damage to the 
nominee and to the Senate. He knew there would be Senators who would 
come to the floor and try to politicize this process for their own 
purposes, and we are seeing the Democrats doing that right now. He knew 
it because that is what Democrats have done for years.
  This is politics as usual for the Democrats. It is the way they tend 
to live their lives here on the Senate floor--talking this way. It is 
exactly what Democrats did when Robert Bork was nominated to serve on 
the Supreme Court. So Vice President Biden, former Senator Biden, 
understands it completely. It is what they did when Miguel Estrada was 
nominated to the circuit court. It is what Democrats did when Samuel 
Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court. Democrats in the Senate even 
filibustered Justice Alito when he was the nominee. They did everything 
they could to slander good, qualified people to try to score political 
points. It is what they do.
  Well, there is no need for us to have this bitter political fight 
that Joe Biden worried about. Republicans have said there should not be 
a bitter political fight. We have called on the President to spare the 
country this fight. The best way to avoid the fight is to agree to let 
the people decide. Give the people a voice, and let the next President 
put forth the nomination. That is certainly what the people of Wyoming 
want us to do. It is what I heard, along with Senator Enzi, on the 
telephone townhall meeting this past Monday, and that is what I heard 
as I traveled around the State of Wyoming the past several weekends. I 
will be back in Wyoming this weekend, and I expect to hear the same 
thing as I travel to Buffalo to the health fair and to communities 
around the State.
  That is what the American people are saying: Give the people a voice. 
They are saying that a seat on the Supreme Court should not be just 
another political payoff to score points in an election year. They are 
saying it should not be a decision for a lameduck President with one 
foot out the door. It is too important for that.
  The Supreme Court is functioning just fine with eight Justices right 
now. That is not me saying it; it is the Justices of the Supreme Court 
saying the same thing. Since Justice Scalia died last month, the Court 
has heard oral arguments in 10 cases. They have released written 
opinions in five cases. They have scheduled more cases for the rest of 
the term, and they are doing their jobs. That is exactly what Justice 
Breyer said they would do. He is a liberal Supreme Court Justice who 
was appointed by President Bill Clinton.
  A reporter asked Justice Breyer about the death of Justice Scalia, 
and he said: ``We'll miss him, but we'll do our work.'' He said: ``For 
the most part, it will not change.''
  So there is no urgency to fill this vacancy on the Supreme Court 
right now. There is no danger in waiting for the next President to act. 
There is tremendous danger, however, if we rush through a nomination in 
the last few months of a Presidential election, to the nominee, to the 
Senate, and to the Nation, just as Joe Biden said 24 years ago. The 
stakes are very high, too high to let that happen.
  The people are telling us what they want. Eighty-eight percent of the 
people in Wyoming involved in our telephone townhall meeting on Monday 
said exactly that: Give the people a voice. We must let the people 
decide.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

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