Nominations

Floor Speech

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Mr. REID. Mr. President, under the Republican leader's direction, this Senate continues to make history for all the wrong reasons. Despite proclaiming that the Senate is back to work, the Republican majority is on pace to become one of the least productive Senates ever.

By now, most Americans are aware of the Republican leader's decision to block consideration of the Supreme Court nomination that President Obama will soon make. But the historic obstruction of a Supreme Court nominee is the most recent and prolific example of the Republican leader's abdication of his constitutional duties and that of the whole Republican caucus. What is that? To provide advice and consent to Presidential nominations.

Since his party assumed the majority in the Senate last January, the Republican leader and his colleagues have ground the nominations to a halt. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the pace of judicial nominations being confirmed this Congress is the worst. To date, this Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed a total of 16 judicial nominations. That is about one a month. Since the beginning of the year, we have confirmed just five judges.

We have 11 judges pending on the Senate calendar, and there would be a lot more, but the chairman of the committee simply is not holding any hearings. He canceled the meeting last week. Maybe they will have one the day after tomorrow. They are not even holding hearings for the people in the pipeline whom the President has nominated. The 11 judges pending on the Senate calendar is not definitive of the real problem we have in this country. But even on the 11, the Republicans refuse to schedule votes--even on judges such as Waverly Crenshaw from Tennessee, who is supported by the two Republican Senators from Tennessee.

If the Republican leader will not even schedule votes on consensus judges recommended by Republican Senators, how can Democrats expect a vote on their recommendations?

While the Republican leader and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee seem content not to do their jobs, the American people are being robbed of justice. There has been a spike in judicial emergencies. If there aren't enough judges to hear the cases that arise, it is deemed to be an emergency because the judges there are unable to do the work because there are too few judges.

When the Republicans assumed control of the Senate last year, there were 12 judicial emergencies nationwide. Now there are 31--1 year later, 31. They are going up almost by the week. As I have indicated, that number will only grow as Republicans continue to refuse to process important judicial nominations. But the obstruction isn't limited to Supreme Court nominees or judges to fill these judicial emergencies. There are other matters that we should be concerned about.

Take, for example, the Banking Committee. It is setting records for doing nothing. The committee has been operating under the leadership of the senior Senator from Alabama. In that time, the committee has not yet reported a single nomination. This is unprecedented.

According to the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan group, the Banking Committee has reported out at least one nomination every year for the past 50 years--not now. It is the only Senate committee not to consider a single nomination last year. When asked why, he said he had other things to do.

What are those nominations that the Senator has put a hold on? What positions have gone unfilled as the chairman pursued his political career with the primary election just having been completed? The Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence is really important and two seats on the Securities and Exchange Commission. We know that Wall Street needs to be monitored very closely. We have two seats that need to be filled. There are two seats on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, and we know how important that is. There are the Director of the U.S. Mint and the Export-Import Bank Board of Directors. They can't do their work now because we need to fill those spots. There are the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the inspector general, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and others.

From the Republican leader to his committee chairs and the rank and file, we continue to hear that the Senate is working again. This is a figment of the Republicans' imagination. It is not working again. It appears the Republican Senate isn't interested in doing its job. There no longer seems to be a voice of reason coming from the Republican side.

Isn't there a single Republican who will stand against the Republican leader's nominations blockade? Isn't there a single Republican willing to put an end to this historic obstruction? Providing advice and consent on the President's nominees is a constitutional duty. I say: Do your job.

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