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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I thank the majority whip.

Thank you for your good work as chair of the Judiciary and for your talk on this issue.

I thank my colleague from Minnesota, who has been passionate about getting this done as well.

I rise today to join with my Democratic colleagues in support of these U.S. attorneys and marshals who have singlehandedly been delayed for weeks by one Senator, the junior Senator from Arkansas.

For decades--decades--Democrats and Republicans have regularly cooperated to swiftly confirm the many, many individuals selected by each President to serve in their administration. Regardless of the party in the White House, both sides have long agreed that a President deserves to have his or her administration in place quickly. That doesn't mean we don't disagree, but it does mean that when nominees are held up, opposed, or blocked, it is for a legitimate purpose, not for leverage and partisan games to score political points at the expense of public safety. Most of us still believe in that principle but, sadly, not all of us.

On the other side of the aisle, a small group of obstructionist Republicans has spent the last year hijacking the rules of the Senate to place an unprecedented number of holds on hundreds--hundreds--of Presidential appointees.

Let me repeat. This isn't about a few nominees here and there; we are talking about hundreds of nominees.

In this case, my colleague from Arkansas is holding back six U.S. attorneys and two U.S. marshals--vital roles in preserving public safety. The level of partisan obstruction is a new low for the Senate.

When President Trump was in office, every single U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal--every single one--was confirmed by this Chamber with unanimous consent. Yes, we had deep, deep problems with the Trump Department of Justice, but never did we demand a rollcall vote just to confirm nominees like these. In fact, the last time the Senate had to hold a rollcall vote--listen to this--the last time the Senate had to hold a rollcall vote to confirm a U.S. attorney was a half a century ago--nearly half a century ago--in 1975, and it is not hard to see why. U.S. attorneys and marshals aren't political positions. Their job is literally to keep Americans safe. They are Federal prosecutors, and they are Federal law enforcement.

If my Republican colleagues on the other side truly care about public safety, why are they obstructing the appointments of individuals whose jobs would precisely be to maintain public safety in the first place? It is ``Alice in Wonderland'' logic.

Now, this isn't just about breaking precedent. Right now, communities across the country still don't have their U.S. attorneys on the job because of obstruction here in the Senate. Districts in Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Michigan, and Illinois are all still waiting for U.S. attorneys.

Sadly, the families who live in these communities shouldn't have to pay the price for what a very small number of Republicans are doing here, but, sadly, that is what is happening. It is a textbook example of why Americans are frustrated with the Senate and are frustrated with their government.

On the other hand, I want to thank my Democratic colleagues for advocating on behalf of the U.S. attorneys and marshals. I thank my friend Senator Durbin, chairman of the Judiciary, for speaking passionately. I thank Senator Klobuchar for coming to the floor to speak. I thank Senators Rosen and Cortez Masto and Duckworth and Brown, who have also spoken.

One way or another, these nominees will be confirmed by the Senate. Republican obstructionists can try to delay, but they cannot stop these individuals from ultimately going through.

If the holds on these nominees are not dropped, I will be filing cloture on them, and we will schedule votes to advance them until the job is finished. If that means more late nights, then more late nights are coming. If it means vote series with six or seven or eight votes in a row, then that is what we will do.

Most of us don't want to go down that road, and we don't have to. The overwhelming majority of Democrats and Republicans want to preserve the decades of precedent and comity that has enabled us to work together on nominees.

So let me say for one last time, delaying the appointment of U.S. attorneys and U.S. marshals over cheap partisan games ultimately makes Americans less safe and weakens law enforcement.

I urge my Republican colleague to drop his obstruction or else he can explain to his colleagues why we have to schedule a dizzyingly large number of rollcall votes just to push these nominees through.

I thank my colleagues for their work and yield to Senator Durbin.

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