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Floor Speech
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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object.
The Senate is a special institution. It is a unique institution. James Madison said the Senate was the only truly innovative part of our Constitution.
It remains the case today that our Senate is the only upper Chamber in a Western parliament that has more power under our Constitution than does the lower Chamber. That is in part because of the design of the Senate in our Constitution; because of our Senate rules, of our traditions, of our customs.
We have heard a lot about courtesy and collegiality and respect. Those are very important customs around here, but it has to be a two- way street.
Earlier this year, in the Judiciary Committee, during the markup for Vanita Gupta to be Associate Attorney General, I was speaking, as is my right under the Judiciary Committee rules. There was at least one other Republican Senator who was preparing to speak. There may have been more. The Senator from Illinois, in his role as chairman of the committee, cut off my remarks and forced through the vote on Vanita Gupta, all so he could save 1 week to get her confirmed--just 1 week.
I said right here at this desk 9 months ago that when our rules and our traditions are so flagrantly breached, there has to be some kind of consequence, and I outlined exactly what that consequence would be at the time: that I would not expedite consideration, as the Senator from Illinois rightly observes is the custom here, for any U.S. attorney nominee from a State represented by a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee because if there are not consequences when rules and traditions are breached in this institution, we will soon not have rules and traditions.
Now, I also said that if the Senator from Illinois would simply express regret for what happened that day and pledge that it wouldn't happen again, I would be happy to let all of these nominees move forward. We have communicated this to the Senator from Illinois and his staff on multiple occasions. I reiterated today that I would be happy to confirm these nominees in the following few minutes if the Senator from Illinois would simply express regret for what happened in the hearing that day and commit that it won't happen again, which, I say again, is simply committing that we follow our own rules. If we hear that from the Senator from Illinois, we will have five new U.S. attorneys.
And I see the Senators from Rhode Island and Hawaii and New Jersey are here. All these States can have their U.S. attorneys this afternoon, but if not, I will have to continue to insist that we not expedite these nominations. So I object.
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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I would like to address the Chair with a question to the Senator from Illinois.
I appreciate those comments. I would observe that since that day, we have not had a similar circumstance in which any Republican wishing to speak was cut off in a markup.
Can we simply have a commitment that that will not happen again in the future, as it hasn't happened in the last 9 months?
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Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks from the Senator of Illinois. I will invite him to make his unanimous consent request again. I do not intend to object further. And a voice vote is fine.
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