-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, the Senate stayed late to keep working on confirming more of the President's judicial nominees. We made excellent progress this week confirming judges, and I am pleased to say that we have cleared the way to confirm many more judges when we return after Thanksgiving.

Today, we will pick up right where we left off last night. Later this morning, we will hold two more cloture votes to advance two more district court judges: Noel Wise to the Northern District of California and Gail Weilheimer to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. We will finish today with a confirmation vote of Sharad Desai to be district judge for the District of Arizona. This would put our total for the week at six new judges confirmed to lifetime appointments to the Federal bench, one circuit court judge and five district court judges. And again, we are in a strong position to confirm many more judges when we come back. We hope to make progress on as many as we can.

Now, I thank all my colleagues for their hard work last night and for being flexible amidst all the rollcall votes. And I want to thank the floor staff, the cloakrooms, the pages, and all the staff in the Senate for staying late several nights this week so we could keep working on the floor. I understand if you feel a little groggy this morning. That is OK.

I am proud that the judges we have confirmed under President Biden are exceptional, highly qualified, and have already begun to bring balance to our bench. Our nominees are adding new perspectives and broad ranges of experience to their courts. We have confirmed individuals with strong experiences in consumer protection and voting rights and civil rights, Supreme Court advocacy, prosecution, and more. In other words, the nominees we have considered represent a balanced and evenhanded group of jurists.

And we will keep going when the Senate returns. Voting on the President's nominees is a basic responsibility of the Senate. We will take that responsibility very seriously between now and the end of the year.

Now, a look ahead. When the Senate returns after Thanksgiving, Senators can expect a very busy few weeks to finish our work before the end of the year. Both sides must continue working together to keep the government open beyond the December 20 deadline. Letting the government shut down just before Christmas would be asinine, plain and simple, and nobody wants that to happen. Well, there may be a few in the other Chamber who do, but they are a distinct minority.

We must pass the annual Defense authorization bill to provide for our troops and hold the line against America's adversaries abroad. We have passed the NDAA every year over the last six decades. With so much going on around the world--in the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific, in Europe, and beyond--passing the NDAA is as critical as it has ever been. We intend to get it done.

We also hope to make progress on the farm bill to avoid going over the so-called dairy cliff at the end of December. Chair Stabenow released text of her bill earlier this week, and I want to commend her for drafting such a strong bill that provides for farmers and ranchers as well as working families through nutrition programs. I know that Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to get the farm bill done.

Another issue we hope to get done is disaster aid. Both sides know we need to act because both sides represent States that have been impacted by disaster. Earlier this week, the Biden administration released a comprehensive plan for disaster aid that does a lot of very good things. It replenishes not just programs housed within FEMA--which is what most Americans think about when they think of a disaster response--but other programs across the Federal Government that are dangerously low on funding, if not totally depleted.

A few days ago, I highlighted the important role that the SBA's Disaster Loan Program plays in times of crisis.

Another one I want to mention is the Department of Transportation funding to repair and reconstruct our highways and roads. When disaster strikes and highways and roads are damaged and rendered impassable, it brings everything to a standstill. Aid is slower to arrive, getting people out of danger is harder, and entire communities can be left isolated.

This is just one example of why we need to pass a robust disaster aid package, and I hope to work with Republicans to get it done as soon and as robustly as possible.

Finally, as I have said, when we return after Thanksgiving, we will pick up right where we left off, confirming more of President Biden's judicial and executive nominees. So it will be a very busy and consequential few weeks in the Senate when we return, and I thank my colleagues for their cooperation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source