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Floor Speech

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise today to support the confirmation of Mr. Edward Sunyol Kiel to the U.S. district court of New Jersey.

Mr. Kiel, whom Senator Booker and I proudly recommended to President Biden, is eminently qualified for this position. Mr. Kiel has spent the entirety of his career demonstrating an even temperament and an unshakable commitment to equal justice under the law.

With 27 years as a practicing attorney in New Jersey, he has amassed an abundance of trial experience and an objectively impressive record of pro bono work for numerous organizations and church groups.

Atop his outstanding credentials, Mr. Kiel is already quite familiar with the District of New Jersey and the Newark courthouse. In fact, he currently serves as a magistrate judge on that very same court. During his time on the bench, he has again and again proven himself a capable and even-keeled jurist, a sharp legal mind with a deep reverence for precedent and the rule of law.

Beyond his regular duties to the court, Judge Kiel has also devoted generous amounts of time to Newark vicinage's Pretrial Opportunity Program, an important initiative that offers treatment alternatives and noncustodial sentences for eligible individuals--once again proving his commitment not just to the law but to human beings impacted by our justice system.

I would be remiss to discuss Judge Kiel's qualifications without also touching on his incredible personal story. Judge Kiel was born in Daegu, South Korea, to parents who fled North Korea as refugees during the war, on foot.

While his parents did not have much in terms of material wealth, they were rich in faith and in love. With just $40 in their pockets--a gift pooled together by their relatives before the journey--his family made a decision to come to the United States and bet it all on the American dream. On their very first Sunday in the United States, Judge Kiel's mother placed that $40 in the church's offering plate--a symbol of her undying optimism for her family's new life in America.

Today, Judge Kiel works every day in the same exact courthouse where his parents became U.S. citizens in the 1970s. If that is not a shining example of the American dream, I don't know what is.

Judge Kiel's story is one that is familiar to so many in the Garden State and across America. His confirmation will be another important step towards achieving the ideal of an independent judiciary that reflects the best of America and mirrors our Nation's rich cultural tapestry. To this end, I commend President Biden for nominating the most racially and ethnically diverse group of qualified Federal judges of any President so far in our Nation's history.

In all branches and at all levels of our government, our democracy and institutions are made stronger by public servants whose lived experiences are as unique and colorful as America itself.

This is a cause to which I have dedicated my Senate career--ensuring that the governed see themselves in their own government, to ensure that our democracy is generally a government of, by, and for the people. It is therefore my sincere pleasure to vote today in favor of confirming Judge Kiel to the district court of New Jersey. I urge my colleagues to do the same. I have no doubt that he will continue to be an asset to New Jersey's Federal bench, and I encourage my colleagues to join me in swiftly confirming him today.

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