[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4633]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING ANNIVERSARY AND FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, in February of this year, Justice Scalia 
passed away. It was an enormous loss to the Nation.
  In the hours and the days following that, Republicans in the Senate 
had the opportunity to talk about their constitutional responsibility--
the responsibility of advice and consent. Supreme Court justices don't 
show up to the Supreme Court because the President just nominates them. 
In the Constitution, article II, section 2, lays out a 50-50 
proposition.
  The President has the first 50 percent. He narrows down his list, and 
he nominates.
  The Senate then has the second 50 percent. They have the power of 
what is called advice and consent. The first half of that is when. Is 
this the right time to do a nominee? And with many nominees, 
historically--Ambassadors, Justices, Cabinet officers--the Senate has 
had a long delay to be able to say: No, this is not the right time.
  So the first question is, Is this the right time? The second question 
is, Is this the right person? That is the process of advice and 
consent, and it has been for 200 years.
  So what has happened since February? Since February, Republicans have 
been very consistent--myself included--to say: This is not the time to 
have a Supreme Court Justice go through the nomination process. In the 
hours after Justice Scalia passed away, we made it very clear so that 
any nominee who went through the process, regardless of who they were, 
would know in advance this: You will not move to a hearing because it 
is not the right time. Of our two-part test--Is this the right time? Is 
this the right person?--the first part is not complete. It is not the 
right time. So this nominee will not move at all throughout this entire 
year, and everyone knew that in advance.
  So I understand Republicans have talked about the first test on that, 
the priority of ``is this the right time?'' Democrats have focused on 
``is this the right person?'' They have focused on Judge Garland as the 
nominee. They want to be able to raise and talk about his profile, and 
I get the politics of that. But it is just the politics of it. We would 
expect that banter back and forth on the politics, but this is a 
settled issue among Republicans. He will not move through the 
nomination process.
  But we hit a new low today on this floor, and I had to come and 
address it. Today, this moved from a conversation about whether this is 
the right time and whether this is the right person to drawing in the 
memory of the 168 lives that were lost in Oklahoma City 21 years ago 
today--April 19, 1995. It was the worst act of terrorism at that time 
on American soil, carried out by another American, killing 168 people 
at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. A Ryder truck loaded 
with fertilizer and diesel pulled up to the front and blew it up, 
killing 168.
  Timothy McVeigh carried that out. He got into his Ford and drove 
north to leave out of the State. But 90 minutes later--90 minutes 
later--Trooper Charlie Hanger, who was just doing his job, saw a 
vehicle on I-35 without a license plate on it, pulled him over, found 
out he also had a weapon on him, and put him in jail to be able to hold 
him. Trooper Charlie Hanger, doing his job, actually arrested the 
person who had killed 168 people just 90 minutes before, not knowing 
it.
  Local law enforcement and individuals quickly went through the debris 
trying to find individuals to save and evidence to be able to identify 
who this was. Within a few hours, they found the axle of the Ryder 
truck. They called the rental company. They identified it. They did a 
composite sketch, and they figured out within hours who this might be--
a guy named Timothy McVeigh. Running a search on him, they figured out 
he was already in jail. He had been picked up by Trooper Charlie 
Hanger. Before he was released--because he was in the process of being 
released--they were able to hold him and unwind a horrific crime. It 
was incredible local law enforcement. It was an incredible task that 
happened.
  Within 40 hours of that event occurring, a gentleman named Merrick 
Garland had come from DC, where he worked for the Department of 
Justice, to Oklahoma City to help on the Federal side of the 
prosecution, along with thousands of other people from around the 
country. Our State and our city was overwhelmed with the compassion of 
people around the country as we saw what happened, and Merrick Garland 
was one of those. We are grateful as a community for what he did in the 
prosecution of Timothy McVeigh, what he did against Terry Nichols, and 
what he did against Michael Fortier. We are grateful for his work 
there.
  But today, on the floor of this Senate, the implication was laid out 
twofold. One is that, since Judge Garland served the country and did 
that, he deserves something else. I have never met Judge Garland. I 
will meet him next week and, quite frankly, look him in the face and 
say: Thank you for your service to Oklahoma.
  To make clear again the same position before, there will be no 
nomination this year. He does deserve our gratitude. He doesn't deserve 
a lifetime appointment onto the bench because of his faithful service 
to our country and to our community as is being alluded to.
  The politics of it really, really deeply struck me as an Oklahoman--
that for some reason, today, of all days, the tragedy that happened to 
168 people and their death 21 years ago suddenly became paraded out 
here as a political prop. One of the Senators was even standing with a 
picture of a dead child behind him like she is a prop. This child is 
not a prop for politics. She has a name. She was identified as a 
toddler. She was 1 year and 1 day old. She was killed in the Murrah 
Building the day after her 1-year birthday. She is not some random 
toddler. Her name is Baylee, and she is not to be used as a prop for 
politics in the Supreme Court nomination process.
  It is absolutely fair game to talk about the record of Judge Garland 
and what he has done. We are grateful as Oklahomans for his service to 
our State and to our Nation to put away those awful terrorists. But to 
use a child who was killed in the Murrah Building bombing as a prop so 
far exceeds the line that I had to come and speak about it and say that 
I am absolutely offended--and I should be.
  So it was 21 years ago today. We remember. It is a statement that 
comes up to Oklahomans over and over: We remember. We remember the 
victims. We remember the survivors. We remember the first responders. 
We remember the thousands of people who came from across the country to 
help us. We remember, and we will continue to remember. But don't do 
politics with the life and death of the children and adults in Oklahoma 
City. Let's keep this where it should be. We could have the debate 
about process. Do not draw this in.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.

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