Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016--Conference Report--

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I rise this afternoon to talk about the pace of judicial confirmations with my friends, the Senator from Hawaii and the Senator from Massachusetts, who have been real leaders on this issue.

Well, we have only one more day of legislative session before Congress breaks until September. It is an appropriate time to take stock of how the majority has handled their job of scheduling and confirming judges. More than a year into this new Congress, the Republican leadership has allowed only 22 judges to be confirmed--only 22. In the last 2 years of the Bush administration with a Democratic majority--the mirror situation of what we are in today--there were 68. So that is 68 versus 22.

The Republican majority is confirming judges at the slowest rate in more than 60 years. This has real consequences across America. Vacancies have risen from 43 to 83 since Republicans took over the majority; 29 have been judicial emergencies. I know that in my city of Buffalo in Western New York we had an emergency. We have one of the busiest courts, and for a while we had no judges. Now we have one.

At this point in time in the Bush administration, with Democrats in control of the Senate, we had reduced the number to 39. That is half as many vacancies as now exist. From the district courts to the Federal courts of appeal, all the way up to the Highest Court in the land, the Republican majority has been showing the American people that when it comes to judges, they just are not doing their job.

This is hardly a Senate that is back to work. The nuts and bolts of governing is the process of nominations, especially for the judiciary. By this measure, the Republican Senate and its Judiciary Committee are not back to work; they are sleeping on the job. There is no better example of it than the irresponsible, partisan blockade of President Obama's Supreme Court pick, now in its fifth month.

The speedy application of justice, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances is a bedrock of American values enshrined in the Constitution. This is not an abstract concept. It has real, everyday consequences for American litigants. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Without judges on the bench, justice is denied for a woman who was unjustly fired, suing to get back her job and support her family.

It is denied for a small business owner seeking to resolve a contract dispute and keep his stores open. Any small business owner can tell you that when lawsuits hang over them, whether they are plaintiffs or defendants, it causes them sleepless nights. My dad was a small business man. Our Republican colleagues are just twiddling their thumbs.

It is denied for criminal defendants who deserve to have their cases heard in a courtroom before an impartial judge and a jury of their peers. This matters in so many of the States, including my home State of New York. One of the judges who has been languishing on the calendar is Gary Brown. He is currently serving as a magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York. He has been nominated for a seat on the Islip court, a crowded bench. Long Island has 3 million people, more than many States. That seat has been vacant for 18 months--18 months.

The small business people in Long Island who need these cases settled and the many others who are awaiting justice are in anguish. Our Republican colleagues just sit there. We know why. The American people know why too. They are not doing their jobs.

Gary Brown is eminently qualified for this seat. As a magistrate judge, he heard a number of cases related to the fallout from Superstorm Sandy. Only through Judge Brown's intelligence and integrity were deficiencies in the insurance claims process uncovered, and hundreds of homeowners began to recoup their losses. So we need a Judge Brown. The people of Long Island need a Judge Brown. Without judges on the bench, we are diminishing that corps.

Our majority leader likes to talk about the fact that the Senate is working again. Give me a break. If you can't even appoint judges, how can you say the Senate is working? There is no good reason other than the usual political games, games that Democrats did not play when we were in the same position in the last 2 years of George Bush's term and we had the Senate majority.

Well, we have 1 day left before we break. Yet this body has failed to pass adequate legislation dealing with Zika, failed to pass real funding on the opioid crisis, failed to pass sensible gun safety measures after another senseless tragedy in Orlando, and failed to fill our benches, whether it is the Supreme Court, the circuit courts, or the district courts.

Our Republican majority owes it to the American people to make some progress on judges before Members run for the hills. We should not be adjourning with this many vacancies, this many judicial emergencies. It is time to confirm these uncontroversial nominees. I say to every one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, particularly the majority leader, it is time to do your job.

11, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 359, 362, 363, 364, 459, 460, 461, 505, 508, 569, 570, 571, 572, 573, 597, 598, 599, and 600; further, that the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nominations; and that, if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source