Recognition of the Minority Leader

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I listened very carefully to the majority leader this morning. What he said was confirming nominees should be the norm, not the exception--confirming nominees should be the norm, not the exception.

Well, I would ask, respectfully, that the majority leader take a look at actually the record because you cannot ignore the facts.

Of the 1,564 nominations that President Obama has sent to the Senate, only 4 have been rejected--4 of 1,564. During the first 2 years of the President's first term in office--the 111th Congress--the Senate confirmed 9,020 nominees and rejected 1. In the second portion of that first term--which was the 112th Congress--the Senate confirmed 574 nominees and rejected just 2. Now, during the 113th Congress, the Senate has confirmed 66 nominees and rejected just 1.

In terms of Cabinet nominees--and we heard the majority leader speak of that--the Congressional Research Service shows that President Obama's nominees have waited an average of 51 days. That is shorter than for President George W. Bush and shorter than the time under President Clinton.

When you take a look at judges--and the majority leader talked about that--the Democrats should remember the Senate has already confirmed more judges this year so far than were confirmed in the entire first year of President Bush's second term.

When you go over this item by item, detail by detail, what you see is that confirming nominees is the norm, not the exception.

It was interesting to listen to the majority leader talk about Don Berwick, who was actually nominated to be the head of Health and Human Services, Medicare. As the Medicare nominee, what happened? The Democratic chairman of the committee never ever scheduled a hearing. The Democrats are in charge of that nominee. The President made a recess appointment. There was never even a nomination hearing.

We go through the years and look at the quotes, and here is Senator Reid in 2005:

Some in this Chamber want to throw out 214 years of Senate history in the quest for absolute power.

He said:

They think they're wiser than our Founding Fathers.

Senator Reid said:

I doubt that that's true.

I think we should all follow that advice. We are not wiser than the Founding Fathers. It is not time to throw out the rules.

Then, even as majority leader, in 2009, Senator Reid said:

[T]he nuclear option was the most important issue I've ever worked on in my entire career, because if that had gone forward it would have destroyed the Senate as we know it.

So there is not a problem with President Obama's nominees being treated fairly and being treated in a timely fashion. There is not a problem with his nominees in terms of not being confirmed--1,560 confirmed, 4 rejected.

Senate Democrats should remember--should remember--their prior commitments and abandon this plan before irreparably damaging the Senate.

I yield the floor.

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