Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I thank my colleague for those incredibly
generous words. I recognize the Presiding Officer, Senator Perdue. I am
grateful to be able to serve with him, and it is great seeing him in
the captain's chair, to use my ``Star Trek'' parlance. I am happy to
have the chance to formally welcome the Senator from Georgia to the
Senate. It is good to serve with him as well.

Lynch Nomination

Mr. President, I am honored to stand on the Senate floor to express
my strong support for the historic nomination of Loretta Lynch to be
the Attorney General of the United States. Our Nation is fortunate to
have Ms. Lynch as the nominee for Attorney General. She is seasoned,
competent, wise, extraordinarily dedicated, and has already served this
Nation for many years, receiving accolades from across the country. She
is historic in and of herself and exceptionally well qualified. I wish
to tell everyone a little bit more about her.

First, though, I want to ask--and this should not be necessary, but I
want to ask: Why do we almost have a double standard for Ms. Lynch's
nomination? She is the first African-American woman appointed to head
the Department of Justice. She has had her nomination pending on the
Senate floor longer than any nominee for Attorney General going back
three decades. Ms. Lynch has had to wait 81 days for a hearing in
committee--longer than any of President George W. Bush's nominees for
Attorney General had to wait; more than twice as long for Attorneys
General John Ashcroft and Michael Mukasey; and 24 days longer than
Alberto Gonzalez. She waited 27 days for a committee vote after her
hearing, again longer than any of George Bush's nominees to be Attorney
General. Now her nomination has lingered on the Senate floor without a
vote for 20 days, which is again longer than the wait for any of the
last five Attorneys General combined. Her historic nomination has now
been pending in the Senate for more than 130 days since the President
first nominated her. I have not heard a single good reason germane to
her qualifications, to her values, to her views, and to the kind of
service she has rendered or will render, as to why she should not be
promptly confirmed.

She comes before the Senate having been twice appointed by two
different Presidents and twice unanimously confirmed by this very body,
to be a U.S. attorney. She has been a career Federal prosecutor for
almost a decade, a partner at a prestigious law firm, and led one of
the finest Federal prosecuting offices in the country, the Eastern
District of New York.

Her nomination has the support of dozens of law enforcement
organizations, civil rights organizations, and outspoken citizens from
across the country.

So, again, I wonder why are we here today still waiting? Why does
this President's exceptionally well-qualified nominee deserve such
unfair treatment?

Attorneys General are important because they lead the Department that
keeps us safe and secure and protects our rights. From securing the
right to vote to combating the violence of organized crime, to bringing
terrorists to justice, this position is too important for any kind of
political games and for any kind of delay.

Seventy-five years ago, another Attorney General, Robert H. Jackson,
spoke eloquently about the qualities of a good Federal prosecutor and
hence a good Attorney General, when he said: ``The citizen's safety
lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks
truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes,
and who approaches her task with humility.''

This is the type of prosecutor Ms. Lynch has always been and the type
of Attorney General she will be.

This appointment is historic. Once confirmed, Ms. Lynch will be the
first Black woman to serve in the Nation's highest law enforcement
position. She will be only the second woman and second African American
to be Attorney General. Her story is our story. It is an American
story. It reflects a long history of our Nation, the distance we have
traveled as a country.

It is a story of a Black woman who grew up in the Jim Crow South, the
daughter of a fourth-generation minister and segregation-fighting
mother who overcame discrimination and achieved the American dream
despite the early obstacles she faced. Once, while a student at a
predominantly White elementary school, her standardized test scores
were so high that the disbelieving school demanded she retake her test.
The great thing about that story is she retook the test and got a
higher score. On one other occasion, she was named the valedictorian of
her high school class which was a predominantly White high school, but
the White administrators in the school did not think it was appropriate
to have a Black girl as the top student, so they asked her to share
that honor with a White student, and she did so with dignity and grace.

She would go on to earn an Ivy League education, climb the highest
ladders of her profession, and stand today nominated by the President
of the United States of America, and when confirmed by the Senate, she
will be our 83rd Attorney General. Only in this great Nation can a
story such as this be possible, can a story such as this be told.

Today, we continue our efforts. All of us--Republicans and
Democrats--in this body are committed to building a more perfect Union.
I know this confirmation will inspire people all across our country--
people who may have lost their faith in law enforcement or in our
government's ability to get things done, to know that despite the odds
or challenges, we are still a great nation, that we are devoted to
overcoming our challenges.

We celebrate someone who has broken glass ceilings, who has broken
barrier after barrier, and now as a qualified candidate will hopefully
soon ascend to this position. It is a reaffirmation of the American
dream.

While history is important, I don't want to overshadow those
qualifications. I want to reiterate them.

She is a well-qualified nominee. She graduated with Harvard College
and Harvard Law School degrees, and went on to gain exceptional
experience as a prosecutor and as a manager. As U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of New York, she led one of the Nation's most
challenging prosecutorial offices. I know this. I live right across the
river from where she works. Her tough approach to fighting crime became
almost legendary. She won acclaim throughout our metropolitan region as
well as in the law enforcement community.

In that office she established a record that would make any
prosecutor proud. She led an office that had the tenacity to take on
violent criminals, to confront political corruption, and to disrupt
organized crime.

At a time when the Senate is considering legislation to combat human
trafficking, we need an Attorney General who will vigorously,
unapologetically, and courageously prosecute traffickers. Ms. Lynch has
been a leader on that very issue. Her office prosecuted over 100 child exploitation cases and brutal global trafficking cases. Her office tried more terrorism cases since 9/11 than any other office in the country.

I was impressed when she first came to my office. She was candid,
straightforward, and down to earth. What is clear from Ms. Lynch's
record is not just that she is a tough prosecutor but that she is a
leader with a vision and the right values to be Attorney General.

Too many Americans distrust the ability of law enforcement to fairly
enforce our laws. Ms. Lynch believes in the principles of equality and
justice first and foremost, and she will restore even more faith in our
system. In her committee testimony she articulated a vision about how
in a great time of tension in our country we can rebuild the trust
between dedicated, committed law enforcement officers on the streets
and the communities they serve. Too many Americans, as I said time and
again, go to prison for far too long. The majority of people
incarcerated today in Federal prisons are there for nonviolent
offenses. We have a nation that leads the globe in incarcerating
people, and we do it often in a way that is discriminatory against poor
people and minorities.

Ms. Lynch has a vision of alternatives to incarceration for
nonviolent offenders that are based on facts and based on her
experience. She supported her district's drug court with a diversion
program taking first-time nonviolent offenders out of the prosecution
system and giving them access to drug treatment. Her innovation and
successes speak volumes about her commitment to saving taxpayer dollars
and addressing our swelling prison population while also driving down
crime.

So I say in conclusion, she has sterling character. She has
incredible credentials. She has unflappable integrity. I am confident
that as Attorney General she will ensure that the Department leads in a
way that will make us proud.

The road to building a more perfect Union in this country has been
long, and the work still continues. We are at a time in this Nation
when cynicism with government is at an all-time high. One of the
highest-ranked concerns that Americans have right now--issues of
employment and education are now being caught up to by concerns that
Americans have about whether their very government will work together
to do what is right.

The delay in her nomination undermines the integrity of this body. It
gives a signal to all those who are cynical to further surrender to
that emotion. This great candidate passed through committee in
bipartisan fashion. She is a great woman, a great African American, and
most of all a great American and she should not be delayed on the
sidelines when there is work to be done, when her very delay begins to
undermine what we say this body can do when we all work together and
put petty partisan politics aside and stand up for something far more
important, which is the work to make this country a more perfect Union.

We can do that together, all of us in the Senate, by confirming Ms.
Lynch who will use that post to do the very same.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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