Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Ms. WARREN. Madam President, I come to the floor to oppose the nomination of Neomi Rao to be a judge of the second most powerful court in the country.

My decision boiled down to just this one question: Will Ms. Rao advance equal justice for all or will she continue to tilt the courts in favor of the rich and powerful?

Ms. Rao's record shows that she will continue to tilt our courts in favor of the powerful few and leave everyone else behind, and that is why I oppose her nomination, but that is also exactly why she was selected by the President for this important lifetime appointment.

In the last 2 years, with the Trump administration controlling the White House and Republicans, until January, controlling both Houses of Congress, the rich and powerful have had unparalleled access to the Federal Government, and they have been terrifyingly effective at making Washington work even better for themselves.

Just think of some of their high-profile victories: a tax plan that takes away money from working Americans and gives it straight to the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals, rollbacks of countless protections to protect public health, consumer welfare, and environmental safety. Those are just the policies that people have been paying attention to.

For decades now, billionaire-funded rightwing groups have operated in the shadows to take over our courts by installing rightwing judges who will put the interests of giant corporations and wealthy individuals ahead of everyone else. For those special interests, Neomi Rao is the ideal candidate.

In 2017, I came to the floor to oppose Ms. Rao's nomination to lead the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs--the small but powerful Agency that reviews and signs off on economically significant Federal rules. I was concerned about Ms. Rao's advocacy for weakening or handcuffing Federal Agencies that are there to help protect the public from giant corporations that prey on consumers, that mistreat their workers, and that pollute our environment.

I worried that confirming her to lead OIRA would threaten the health and safety of all Americans. For example, Ms. Rao attacked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau--the Agency that has returned $12 billion to working families who were cheated--arguing against its authority to protect consumers from predatory lending practices.

That was exactly the kind of candidate that Big Business and billionaires wanted, so the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Ms. Rao, and the all-too-predictable happened.

Under Ms. Rao's leadership, OIRA approved the EPA's decision to roll back important environmental positions, OIRA rubberstamped changes at the Department of Labor that allowed certain employers to hide workplace injuries, and Ms. Rao blocked a proposed measure from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would have helped uncover pay discrimination. The list goes on.

Ms. Rao pairs her pro-corporate stance with harmful, regressive views about sexual assault. In college, she wrote an article placing blame on the survivors of sexual assault if they drank alcohol, claiming that such behavior was ``part of their choice.''

At her hearing, she refused to fully disclaim this line of thought, claiming she was just recommending certain actions women could take to make themselves less likely to be assaulted.

If that wasn't worrisome enough, Ms. Rao also argued in a book review that public protections for women, for people of color, and for Americans with disabilities are bad because they have eroded the power of traditional elites, going so far as to call affirmative action the ``bane of all good elitists.''

For President Trump, congressional Republicans, and their billionaire buddies, Ms. Rao's commitment to protecting the interests of the rich and powerful over everyone else was a feature of her tenure at OIRA, not a bug. Now, as a reward for spending a year and a half rolling back public protections and rubberstamping corporate America's wish list, the Trump administration has selected her to be a judge on the second highest court in this country.

At the DC Circuit, Ms. Rao would have even more power to stop Federal efforts to protect Americans from abusive corporations and billionaires. She would rule on attempts to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink. She would have the power to overturn protections for workers from unsafe working conditions, and she would have the chance to upend rules to prevent big corporations from discriminating against people of color, LGBTQ Americans, and other marginalized communities.

Throughout her career, Ms. Rao has made very clear what her preferred hierarchy looks like: corporations and billionaires up at the top, and everybody else at the bottom.

As a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ms. Rao will have an opportunity to practice that philosophy at an even larger scale.

Madam President, our Federal courts are supposed to defend equal justice for all Americans, not cater to the wealthy and well connected. Neomi Rao's record shows that she will continue the corporate takeover of our courts.

A vote for her is a vote against the millions of Americans who have already borne the consequences of the radical, pro-corporate policies she has advanced throughout her career. That is why I believe the Senate should reject her nomination.

Nomination of William Beach

Madam President, I also want to express my strong opposition to the nomination of William Beach to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS's accurate and impartial analysis is crucial to policymakers, workers, and businesses.

In Mr. Beach, President Trump has chosen someone who has spent years at so-called think tanks that are funded by radical rightwing billionaires pushing so-called studies that criticize Social Security and support draconian budget cuts and tax cuts for the richest Americans--studies that have since been discredited. That is not whom we need running one of our country's most important statistical Agencies.

Besides Mr. Beach's radical, pro-corporate background, I want to join Ranking Member Murray in expressing my serious concern with my Republican colleagues' refusal to confirm Democratic nominees to other important Agencies for workers--the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This obstruction is a total departure from precedent, and it is preventing these Agencies from protecting the rights of millions of American workers to bargain collectively and to go to work without worrying about illegal discrimination and harassment.

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