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“FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S1646-S1648 on April 5, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FILLING THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the senior Senator from Iowa, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, came to the floor yesterday afternoon in an attempt to divert attention away from that committee and his failure to do his job. He is not doing his job as chairman of that committee. He hoped to do that by focusing on me for objecting to a bill that would expand the subpoena powers of certain government appointees called inspectors general, but his efforts failed. People weren't looking at me; they were looking at the work not done by the Judiciary Committee.
I objected to that bill because that legislation was really a legislative overreach, just as my friend the senior Senator from Iowa continues his overreach by turning the Senate Judiciary Committee into, for example, a Benghazi committee--a narrowly partisan committee masquerading as an independent party. It is the same theory that had Secretary Clinton spending 11 or 12 hours before the committee during the course of 1 day. That hearing was a flop because of her assertiveness, her direct answering of questions, and her physical and emotional strength, standing and sitting during that time.
My friend's tenure as Judiciary Committee chair has been reduced to one stunt after another. One of his stunts included demanding maternity leave records of one of Secretary Clinton's staffers. Another political stunt was blocking the confirmation of State Department Legal Adviser Brian Egan, and yet another political stunt was blocking the promotions list of career Foreign Service officers. And his latest political stunt is preventing the Senate from doing its constitutional duty in considering President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. So even though the senior Senator from Iowa hopes to divert attention away from this disappointment, that is his Republican Judiciary Committee, the people aren't easily fooled.
The people of Iowa and the rest of the country certainly aren't buying Senator Grassley's political charades. This morning the Des Moines Register, the largest newspaper in Iowa, published another scathing editorial regarding Senator Grassley's unprecedented obstruction of the Supreme Court nominee. The editorial highlights the fact that because of the Supreme Court vacancy, the highest Court in the land is now stuck in a rut of 4-to-4 decisions--a stalemate. This is what the Des Moines Register editorial said, and I quote:
Americans might need to get used to deadlocks, thanks to Senator Chuck Grassley. The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee seems just fine with stalemate.
Now the senior Senator from Iowa may be content with gridlock in the Supreme Court, but the American people simply aren't. They are not content with the way the chairman continues to use one of the most prestigious, independent, and powerful committees to carry out political warfare. So maybe he should spend less time complaining about me and more time simply doing his job.
Every day, more and more Senators are meeting with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Chief Judge Merrick Garland, as well they should. According to the senior Senator from Utah, ``fulfilling that role [of advice and consent] requires us to evaluate a nominee's qualifications for the particular position for which she has been nominated.'' We know that was when they were looking at Sotomayor and Kagan, who are on the Court. That is why every Senator, using the same logic as my friend from Utah--Republican, Democratic--should meet with Judge Garland.
This week he has a full slate of meetings scheduled with Senate Democrats. By the end of the week, every Democratic member of the Judiciary Committee will have met with President Obama's nominee. To date, 16 Republicans have either met with Judge Garland or indicated they are willing to do so in the future. Some even have meetings scheduled: Senators Ayotte, Boozman, Cassidy, Cochran, Collins, Flake, Grassley, Inhofe, Johnson, Kirk, Lankford, Murkowski, Portman, Risch, Rounds, and Toomey. These are all Republican Senators who have said publically that they are going to meet with him. I think that is a step in the right direction, and I think it really speaks volumes.
Take for example Senator Inhofe and Senator Lankford. I am sure they have in their mind the outstanding work that Garland did when he was U.S. assistant attorney. He led the charge. No one questions his terrific, outstanding prosecution of that man who killed who knows how many people in Oklahoma with that bomb, for which, of course, eventually, he was given the death penalty.
This is a good man. Judge Garland is a good man. In every court he goes to, Democrats and Republicans speak highly of him--Chief Justice Roberts, among others. So I was disappointed last week when some Republican Senators, such as Murkowski and Moran, abandoned their previous support for agreeing to consider Judge Garland's nomination. Senator Moran's backtracking is especially alarming because it appears to be the result of a multimillion dollar campaign urging the Senator to reverse his support for a hearing for Judge Garland. As has been reported by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Senator Moran's about-face came in response to a backlash from the Koch brothers. I quote directly from the article:
On March 21, Moran told a small crowd in Cimarron, ``I have my job to do,'' and ``I think the process ought to go forward.'' Though he made it clear that Garland likely wouldn't be worthy of his vote, the comments indicated hearings should be held for the judge.
But they went on to say more.
Within a few days, Moran's comments sparked backlash from conservative groups. The Judicial Crisis Network announced it was putting the finishing touches on an advertising campaign bashing Moran, and the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund said it was considering backing a primary challenger.
U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a fellow Kansas Republican, publicly called on Moran to reconsider, a rare criticism of Moran from a fellow member of the Kansas congressional delegation. The criticisms eventually reached bizarre heights when the Traditional Values Coalition compared Moran to Judas Iscariot.
[The] chief counsel of the Judicial Crisis Network said Friday she was pleased to see Moran changed his mind.
Well, I guess you could say he changed his mind. Moran was meeting with Garland and holding confirmation hearings until the Judicial Crisis Network and the tea party and the Koch brothers threatened him. It will surprise no one to learn that the Koch brothers and their dark money helped fund these radical organizations more than anybody else in the world. The Kochs are notorious for bullying anyone who stands in their way.
There is, without any question, oligarchs in the land, the first ones I have known in America. They are the Koch brothers. If they are successful in the splurging of their vast wealth and accomplishing what they set out doing in this campaign, I feel very, very bad for our country. They will be talking about us the way they talk about Russia--
the oligarchy that is there. We are going to have one and the same.
Now, we must not forget how the Koch brothers' minions tried to intimidate investigative journalist Jane Mayer because she dared to expose the Kochs' attempt to buy our democracy. Her book, called ``Dark Money,'' is on the New York Times bestseller list, and all over the country people are buying that book. Why? Because it is an insight into two brothers who are trying to buy America. Charles and David Koch used their fortune and their tremendous clout to force Senator Moran to back down from his position. Publically, I can't imagine how one of us, a Senator, could be forced to do that in the manner that he was. All of this is because the junior Senator from Kansas dared to meet with the Supreme Court nominee. He dared to suggest that Garland deserved a hearing. He dared to do his job.
So is this now what the Republican Party has become--a party dictated by menace and intimidation? All you have to do is look at what is going on with the Republican Presidential nomination. That answers the question itself.
Some 30 years ago, though, Senator Grassley said the Judiciary Committee ``has the obligation to build a record and to conduct the most in-depth inquiry that we can'' on Supreme Court nominees. Now the Republican leader, Charles Grassley, have twisted the arms of the Republican Judiciary Committee members, compelling them to sign a loyalty pledge and forcing them to refuse to consider the President's Supreme Court nominee. Regrettably, Senator Moran is just the latest Republican Senator who has allowed himself to be pushed around, to be intimidated by money.
Instead of caving to the Republican leader and the Koch brothers, it is time for the Republican Senators to take a stand and do their job. I hope the remaining Republican Senators who said they will meet with him will go ahead and do so and will stand firm. I hope they will meet with Judge Garland and take the next step in the process--to hold confirmation hearings. As it was reported by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, the average wait for the Supreme Court nominees, from nomination to hearing, has been 42 days. According to that timeline, Chairman Grassley and his committee should begin confirmation hearings for Judge Garland April 27.
Last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to the Republican leader and Chairman Grassley calling on them to abide by this traditional timeline and hold a hearing by the 27th. I am very proud of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee for doing this. That is what the American people want. They want Republicans to stop counting on the most extreme forces within their party and just do their job. That is all we are asking--as simple as that.
Mr. President, will the Chair announce what the Senate is scheduled to do the rest of the day.
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