[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3668-3669]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the senior Senator from Iowa, who is 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, came to the floor yesterday 
afternoon in an attempt to divert attention away from that committee 
and his failure to do his job. He is not doing his job as chairman of 
that committee. He hoped to do that by focusing on me for objecting to 
a bill that would expand the subpoena powers of certain government 
appointees called inspectors general, but his efforts failed. People 
weren't looking at me; they were looking at the work not done by the 
Judiciary Committee.
  I objected to that bill because that legislation was really a 
legislative overreach, just as my friend the senior Senator from Iowa 
continues his overreach by turning the Senate Judiciary Committee into, 
for example, a Benghazi committee--a narrowly partisan committee 
masquerading as an independent party. It is the same theory that had 
Secretary Clinton spending 11 or 12 hours before the committee during 
the course of 1 day. That hearing was a flop because of her 
assertiveness, her direct answering of questions, and her physical and 
emotional strength, standing and sitting during that time.
  My friend's tenure as Judiciary Committee chair has been reduced to 
one stunt after another. One of his stunts included demanding maternity 
leave records of one of Secretary Clinton's staffers. Another political 
stunt was blocking the confirmation of State Department Legal Adviser 
Brian Egan, and yet another political stunt was blocking the promotions 
list of career Foreign Service officers. And his latest political stunt 
is preventing the Senate from doing its constitutional duty in 
considering President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. 
So even though the senior Senator from Iowa hopes to divert attention 
away from this disappointment, that is his Republican Judiciary 
Committee, the people aren't easily fooled.
  The people of Iowa and the rest of the country certainly aren't 
buying Senator Grassley's political charades. This morning the Des 
Moines Register, the largest newspaper in Iowa, published another 
scathing editorial regarding Senator Grassley's unprecedented 
obstruction of the Supreme Court nominee. The editorial highlights the 
fact that because of the Supreme Court vacancy, the highest Court in 
the land is now stuck in a rut of 4-to-4 decisions--a stalemate. This 
is what the Des Moines Register editorial said, and I quote:

       Americans might need to get used to deadlocks, thanks to 
     Senator Chuck Grassley. The head of the Senate Judiciary 
     Committee seems just fine with stalemate.

  Now the senior Senator from Iowa may be content with gridlock in the 
Supreme Court, but the American people simply aren't. They are not 
content with the way the chairman continues to use one of the most 
prestigious, independent, and powerful committees to carry out 
political warfare. So maybe he should spend less time complaining about 
me and more time simply doing his job.
  Every day, more and more Senators are meeting with President Obama's 
Supreme Court nominee, Chief Judge Merrick Garland, as well they 
should. According to the senior Senator from Utah, ``fulfilling that 
role [of advice and consent] requires us to evaluate a nominee's 
qualifications for the particular position for which she has been 
nominated.'' We know that was when they were looking at Sotomayor and 
Kagan, who are on the Court. That is why every Senator, using the same 
logic as my friend from Utah--Republican, Democratic--should meet with 
Judge Garland.
  This week he has a full slate of meetings scheduled with Senate 
Democrats. By the end of the week, every Democratic member of the 
Judiciary Committee will have met with President Obama's nominee. To 
date, 16 Republicans have either met with Judge Garland or indicated 
they are willing to do so in the future. Some even have meetings 
scheduled: Senators Ayotte,

[[Page 3669]]

Boozman, Cassidy, Cochran, Collins, Flake, Grassley, Inhofe, Johnson, 
Kirk, Lankford, Murkowski, Portman, Risch, Rounds, and Toomey. These 
are all Republican Senators who have said publically that they are 
going to meet with him. I think that is a step in the right direction, 
and I think it really speaks volumes.
  Take for example Senator Inhofe and Senator Lankford. I am sure they 
have in their mind the outstanding work that Garland did when he was 
U.S. assistant attorney. He led the charge. No one questions his 
terrific, outstanding prosecution of that man who killed who knows how 
many people in Oklahoma with that bomb, for which, of course, 
eventually, he was given the death penalty.
  This is a good man. Judge Garland is a good man. In every court he 
goes to, Democrats and Republicans speak highly of him--Chief Justice 
Roberts, among others. So I was disappointed last week when some 
Republican Senators, such as Murkowski and Moran, abandoned their 
previous support for agreeing to consider Judge Garland's nomination. 
Senator Moran's backtracking is especially alarming because it appears 
to be the result of a multimillion dollar campaign urging the Senator 
to reverse his support for a hearing for Judge Garland. As has been 
reported by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Senator Moran's about-face came 
in response to a backlash from the Koch brothers. I quote directly from 
the article:

       On March 21, Moran told a small crowd in Cimarron, ``I have 
     my job to do,'' and ``I think the process ought to go 
     forward.'' Though he made it clear that Garland likely 
     wouldn't be worthy of his vote, the comments indicated 
     hearings should be held for the judge.

  But they went on to say more.

       Within a few days, Moran's comments sparked backlash from 
     conservative groups. The Judicial Crisis Network announced it 
     was putting the finishing touches on an advertising campaign 
     bashing Moran, and the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund said 
     it was considering backing a primary challenger.
       U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a fellow Kansas 
     Republican, publicly called on Moran to reconsider, a rare 
     criticism of Moran from a fellow member of the Kansas 
     congressional delegation. The criticisms eventually reached 
     bizarre heights when the Traditional Values Coalition 
     compared Moran to Judas Iscariot.
       [The] chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network said 
     Friday she was pleased to see Moran changed his mind.

  Well, I guess you could say he changed his mind. Moran was meeting 
with Garland and holding confirmation hearings until the Judicial 
Crisis Network and the tea party and the Koch brothers threatened him. 
It will surprise no one to learn that the Koch brothers and their dark 
money helped fund these radical organizations more than anybody else in 
the world. The Kochs are notorious for bullying anyone who stands in 
their way.
  There is, without any question, oligarchs in the land, the first ones 
I have known in America. They are the Koch brothers. If they are 
successful in the splurging of their vast wealth and accomplishing what 
they set out doing in this campaign, I feel very, very bad for our 
country. They will be talking about us the way they talk about Russia--
the oligarchy that is there. We are going to have one and the same.
  Now, we must not forget how the Koch brothers' minions tried to 
intimidate investigative journalist Jane Mayer because she dared to 
expose the Kochs' attempt to buy our democracy. Her book, called ``Dark 
Money,'' is on the New York Times bestseller list, and all over the 
country people are buying that book. Why? Because it is an insight into 
two brothers who are trying to buy America. Charles and David Koch used 
their fortune and their tremendous clout to force Senator Moran to back 
down from his position. Publically, I can't imagine how one of us, a 
Senator, could be forced to do that in the manner that he was. All of 
this is because the junior Senator from Kansas dared to meet with the 
Supreme Court nominee. He dared to suggest that Garland deserved a 
hearing. He dared to do his job.
  So is this now what the Republican Party has become--a party dictated 
by menace and intimidation? All you have to do is look at what is going 
on with the Republican Presidential nomination. That answers the 
question itself.
  Some 30 years ago, though, Senator Grassley said the Judiciary 
Committee ``has the obligation to build a record and to conduct the 
most in-depth inquiry that we can'' on Supreme Court nominees. Now the 
Republican leader, Charles Grassley, have twisted the arms of the 
Republican Judiciary Committee members, compelling them to sign a 
loyalty pledge and forcing them to refuse to consider the President's 
Supreme Court nominee. Regrettably, Senator Moran is just the latest 
Republican Senator who has allowed himself to be pushed around, to be 
intimidated by money.
  Instead of caving to the Republican leader and the Koch brothers, it 
is time for the Republican Senators to take a stand and do their job. I 
hope the remaining Republican Senators who said they will meet with him 
will go ahead and do so and will stand firm. I hope they will meet with 
Judge Garland and take the next step in the process--to hold 
confirmation hearings. As it was reported by the nonpartisan 
Congressional Research Service, the average wait for the Supreme Court 
nominees, from nomination to hearing, has been 42 days. According to 
that timeline, Chairman Grassley and his committee should begin 
confirmation hearings for Judge Garland April 27.
  Last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter 
to the Republican leader and Chairman Grassley calling on them to abide 
by this traditional timeline and hold a hearing by the 27th. I am very 
proud of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee for doing this. That 
is what the American people want. They want Republicans to stop 
counting on the most extreme forces within their party and just do 
their job. That is all we are asking--as simple as that.
  Mr. President, will the Chair announce what the Senate is scheduled 
to do the rest of the day.

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