Water Resources Development Act of 2016 - - Motion to Proceed - - Continued
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. By comparison, at this point in President Bush's Presidency, the Senate had confirmed 316 of his judicial nominations-- 316. As of now, the Senate has already confirmed 329 of President Obama's judicial nominees. In fact, the Senate has already confirmed more of President Obama's judicial nominees than it did during the entirety--the entirety--of President Bush's 8 years in office.
So at this point I am going to object to the request, but I am prepared to enter into an agreement to process a bipartisan package of four more judicial nominations that would include a California judicial nomination, two Pennsylvania judicial nominations, and a Utah judicial nomination. This would presumably be agreeable to the senior Senator from California, the junior Senator from California, and to the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, along with the junior Senator from Pennsylvania and both Utah Senators.
364, 460, 461, and 569; that there be 30 minutes for debate only on each nomination, equally divided in the usual form; that upon the use or yielding back of time on the respective nomination, the Senate proceed to vote, without intervening action or debate, on the nomination.
I offered a counter UC that would confirm four of the judges. I will not repeat the modification that I offered earlier.
Therefore,
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Mr. McCONNELL. I offered a counter consent that was objected to that would have confirmed a district judge in California, two district judges in Pennsylvania, and a district judge in Utah. That was objected to, so I will spare the Senate the counter UC I offered earlier because I know it will be objected to. But with regard to the consent that has just been requested,
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I think we have a broad bipartisan agreement here that we would like to pass the bill. Nobody wants to be unreasonable. We have heard from both the chairman and the ranking member that whatever interest there is in the bill is related to the bill. What I am going to propound here is an opportunity for us to get onto the bill and to move forward. I think this is as close to a good- faith situation as I can imagine, and I hope we trust each other enough to go forward and complete a bill that almost everybody seems to be in favor of. I don't know how to reassure my good friend, the Democratic leader, but I hope I have.
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Mr. McCONNELL. All I would say is there may well be some votes. I would recommend people talk to the chairman and the ranking member, and let's process the bill.
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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, what is the pending business?
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Mr. McCONNELL. I know of no further debate on the motion to proceed.
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