Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Floor Speech
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Ms. HIRONO. 307, 357, 358, 359, 362, 363, 364, 459, 460, 461, and 508; that the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations in the order listed; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action, and the Senate then resume legislative session.
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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I am very disappointed the Republicans are blocking dozens of qualified nominees--nominees who have been reported to the Senate floor on a bipartisan basis. This is certainly, in my view, not about whether the President is being treated fairly, but it is about the Senate doing its job. The Senate is on track to confirm the lowest number of judicial nominees in our history.
Let me mention a nominee from Hawaii: Clare Connors. She was confirmed or voted on unanimously by the Judiciary Committee last month, a statement to her qualifications. Her wide-ranging experience includes district and appellate venues, criminal and civil arenas, and litigation on issues ranging from tax law to tough cases such as crimes against children.
Clare and the other nominees before us today will be kept from serving on the Federal bench because of Republican inaction. My Republican colleagues intend to stop all judicial nominations in July, although there are 79 vacancies pending, 28 of which are considered emergencies. If Ms. Connors is not confirmed, the Hawaii district court seat will be left vacant for over a year.
Our judiciary should be composed of the full complement of judges accorded to each district court. One of the fundamental jobs of the Senate to engage in is its advice and consent function with regard to these judicial nominees, and we are not doing that.
I call upon my colleagues, my Republican friends, to enable all of us to do our jobs and begin again the advice and consent process which we are, under the Constitution, required to do.
I see some other colleagues on the floor, so I yield to my good friend from New York.
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Ms. HIRONO. Mr. President, I wish to say a few more things regarding our request for action on these judicial nominations.
The group of nominations on which I requested action includes nominees from Maryland, New Jersey, Nebraska, Tennessee, New York, California, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. They are all waiting.
I have just one comment about the Supreme Court vacancy. The last time the Senate refused to deal with a Supreme Court vacancy was during the Civil War. They so objected to dealing with the President's nomination that the Congress actually changed the number of Justices on the Supreme Court. The number of Justices is set by law, so the Congress changed the law and changed the number of Justices from 10 to 7 so that they would not have to deal with the President's nominee to the Supreme Court vacancy. The President vetoed that bill, the Congress overrode that veto, and so they changed the makeup and number of Justices on the Supreme Court. Certainly that is not what I am suggesting Republicans should do. In fact, we have had a nine-member Supreme Court for almost 150 years.
I agree with my friend, the Senator from Wyoming, that this should not be a partisan issue. Certainly, I agree with my friend from Maryland that we should get on with it. We should get on with these judicial nominations. We should do our advice and consent role, and clearly with regard to the Supreme Court vacancy, where, with this inaction, we are going to leave that Court with eight members for a year. That is not acceptable to the people of our country. We need to do our job.
I ask my Senate colleagues, my Republican friends, to enable the Senate to do our advice and consent role and do our job as set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
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