Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President. I rise today in strong support of the historic confirmation of Margo K. Brodie to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Frankly, at this point, all of our nominees deserve special attention. With one out of 10 seats on the Federal bench still vacant, and with 14 nominees with strong bi-partisan support pending since last year, we should be focused today on confirming more than one nominee. However, Margo Brodie's nomination is of singular importance to my fellow New Yorkers, and to this country.

First--to put it simply her presence is desperately needed on one of the busiest benches in the country, one that handles some of our most important cases.

Second, Margo Brodie will be, by all accounts, the first Caribbean-born nominee in our Nation's history to be confirmed to an Article III court.

As I've said many times, I look for three qualities in judicial candidates: excellence, moderation, and diversity. When excellence and moderation are both present in a candidate--as they are with Ms. Brodie--diversity is a bonus: a bonus that benefits the bench, the community, and Americans everywhere who might otherwise think that this kind of public service, or even a law degree, was beyond their reach. In fact, I think that a candidate like Ms. Brodie is especially well-qualified for a lifetime appointment to the court.

She has chosen to make her home in this country, and in the neighborhoods served by this court in the Eastern District of New York--and she has already graced her community with outstanding and dedicated service. In 1996, Ms. Brodie became a citizen of the United States in the very court house where she would serve as a judge. I can't think of a more fitting candidate to serve the people in Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, and all the communities in between than someone who pledged her allegiance to this country just footsteps from where she will uphold the rule of law in her chosen country.

Ms. Brodie's story is a classic immigrant's story--one that is born from our country's finest and deepest traditions. It's a story that speaks to our acceptance of people from all over the world who want to come to the United States to work hard, prosper, and become a part of our social fabric.

Ms. Brodie was born in St. John, Antigua. She and her brother Euan were raised by a single mother, with the help of her mother's parents and 14 siblings. After graduating from high school at the age of 16, she attended St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where she worked full time and graduated magna cum laude.

She went on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. After graduating from law school, Ms. Brodie worked for the New York City Law Department for three years, where she learned how to litigate cases. She then spent five years at Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, founded in 1854 and known for alums that include Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Ms. Brodie returned to public service in 1999 by joining the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York, one of the preeminent U.S. Attorney's offices in the Nation.

She rose to become Deputy Chief and then Chief of the General Crimes Unit, where she trained more than half of the current AUSA's in the Eastern District. Since 2010, she has been the deputy chief of the Criminal Division, supervising all 100-plus criminal AUSAs in cases involving public corruption, civil rights, business and securities fraud, terrorism, organized crime, narcotics, and many other areas.

Ms. Brodie has also lent her considerable talents to training prosecutors and law enforcement officers on the rule of law in many developing countries. She spent 10 months in Nigeria as a legal advisor on behalf of the DOJ's overseas training program, and has conducted and assisted in human trafficking training for prosecutors in the Bahamas, Jordan, Swaziland, and Tanzania.

In a short while, Ms. Brodie will be confirmed as a Federal judge--an honor she deserves and a position that she has more than earned. I am proud to have supported her nomination, and to vote for her today.

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