Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this week the Senate will continue to promptly and reasonably consider a number of well-qualified nominees for important positions.

Several weeks ago we put an end to 2 years of unprecedented, systematic partisan obstruction that had kept abundantly qualified nominees on the sidelines for no substantive reason. The Senate took a modest but important step to turn back toward the institutional traditions that had shaped our work in nominations throughout our history. We put in place a reform to speed up the postcloture floor time that we spend debating on lower level nominations--or, in many cases, I should say, supposedly debating them.

Since then we have been able to fill several important posts in the executive branch, along with seats on the bench, at a more reasonable pace. In many cases, these unobjectionable candidates have received the overwhelming support they deserve--90 to 8, 90 to 8, 95 to 3.

Over the next few days, four more will receive consideration on the floor. We will begin by processing the first of two more well-qualified nominees to our Nation's district courts, such as Michael J. Truncale, of Texas, to serve as U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Texas.

Mr. Truncale is a graduate of Lamar University, the University of North Texas, and the Southern Methodist University School of Law. Over more than three decades of private practice, he has amassed a distinguished record in both litigation and appellate law. In addition, Mr. Truncale has served on the board of regents for the Texas State University System and the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board in the Texas Comptroller's Office.

His nomination has earned a well-qualified rating from the ABA and has twice been favorably reported by our colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. So I hope each of our colleagues will join me and add Mr. Truncale's nomination to the growing list of uncontroversial nominees passed in an orderly, bipartisan fashion.

Following consideration of the Truncale nomination, we will vote on Kenneth Lee's nomination to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Wendy Vitter's nomination to serve as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Then we will consider the nomination of Brian Bulatao, of Texas, to serve as Under Secretary of State for Management. This is, effectively, the COO job at the Department of State, responsible for such critical things as embassy security. His nomination was first submitted to the Senate in June of 2018, nearly a year ago.

Following those four individuals, the Senate will also consider this week the nomination of Jeffrey Rosen to serve as our next Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Rosen is a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School. He built a strong record in private practice as a litigator before entering public service in 2003. Prior to his current position, he has served as the Deputy Secretary at the Department of Transportation and at the Office of Management and Budget and as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The American people deserve that their Department of Justice be fully staffed, fully operational, and fully committed to upholding our Nation's laws. So I hope that each of my colleagues reviews this impressive nominee and then votes to confirm him this week.

Disaster Relief

Mr. President, as we continue our efforts in the personnel business, work is also ongoing to reach an agreement for providing supplemental relief funding to communities hit hard by natural disasters.

Last year's deadly hurricane season swept away thousands of homes across the Southeast and left hundreds of thousands more without power. The recent spate of tornadoes killed 23 and injured dozens more in Alabama and Georgia, and the devastating floods created more than $1 billion of damage to homes, businesses, and infrastructure all across the Midwest this spring.

Bipartisan efforts are ongoing to provide aid to cover those in need--from our Territories to those who suffered west coast wildfires and east coast hurricanes. Disaster assistance in the past has not been a partisan issue. It has been over a half-year since many of these disasters hit, and our country is in need.

I am grateful to Chairman Shelby and our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee for continuing to push toward a bipartisan solution that addresses these most urgent needs. I would urge Democrats and Republicans, in the House as well as the Senate, to identify our common ground and produce an outcome for the American people. They have been waiting entirely too long.

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