The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO MIKE DAVIS” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S64-S65 on Jan. 8, 2019.
The Department is one of the oldest in the US, focused primarily on law enforcement and the federal prison system. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, detailed wasteful expenses such as $16 muffins at conferences and board meetings.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO MIKE DAVIS
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I would like to pay tribute to Mike Davis for his incredibly hard work on my Senate Judiciary Committee staff as chief counsel for nominations. He is an Iowan, so his work ethic should be no surprise, but he went above and beyond to ensure that the Senate confirmed a historic number of Federal judges during the 115th Congress, including the very difficult confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh. In December, Mike spoke about his work for me to the Iowa Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. I ask unanimous consent that the text of Mike's speech be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Kavanaugh and Beyond: Judicial Confirmations in the Trump
Administration
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you to Sam Langholz and the rest of the Iowa lawyers' chapter of the Federalist Society for inviting me to speak today. The Federalist Society continues to perform the critical task of building the farm team of constitutionalist, originalist, and textualist lawyers across America who can go on to serve in senior government posts, including in the federal judiciary. Sam is no doubt one of those lawyers. I have known Sam for more than 20 years, from our college internship days in Washington. Sam is an exceptional lawyer and leader, and Governor Kim Reynolds and all Iowans are fortunate to have Sam serving as a senior member of the Governor's team.
I am completing my service as one of Senator Chuck Grassley's lawyers on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where Senator Grassley is finishing his 4-year tenure as the Chairman. In January, Senator Grassley is taking over the chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee, along with assuming the constitutional office of President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate. As President Pro Tem, Senator Grassley will become third in line in the presidential succession, behind the Vice President and the Speaker of the House. It also means that Senator Grassley must have a protective detail, which he absolutely does not want. But as I remind him, the deer across Iowa can now cross Iowa's highways a little more easily without the fear of Chuck Grassley behind the wheel. At least for the next two years, anyway.
In all seriousness, I am very proud to work for Senator Grassley. He is 85 years old, and his health is excellent. His mind is razor-sharp. He remembers everything. He still runs several miles, several times a week. He still runs circles around his staff, especially me. In fact, the
``Farmer from Iowa'' schools me on the law, when I am supposed to advise him on legal issues. When he does this, I tell him that at least my jokes are better than his. He laughs. Sometimes.
Senator Grassley is one of the most kind, caring, decent people I have ever met. He comes home to Iowa virtually every weekend. He puts Iowans above all. And he will never become a creature of The Swamp, even after his 44 years in Congress. Yet Senator Grassley is one of the most--if not the most--consequential lawmakers in Washington. And his chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee has been one of the most consequential in our nation's history.
In fact, earlier today, following Senator Grassley's dogged and determined leadership, Senator Grassley joined the President at the White House for the bill signing of the First Step Act--a once-in-a-generation criminal-justice-reform bill that Senator Grassley wrote and shepherded through Congress. No one expected this legislation to pass, let alone with overwhelmingly bipartisan support. Yet Senator Grassley is the one senator--with the experience, credibility, and trust of his colleagues across the political spectrum--who could have made this happen.
During his 4-year chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley led the effort to report out of committee 61 bills. The Senate passed 45, and 29 became law. Regardless of what you think about the particulars of any one of these laws, very few in Washington have this record of legislative success. As always, Grassley works. And Grassley delivers. Like he has done for his 38 years in the Senate.
I am particularly pleased to join you today to discuss one of Senator Grassley's most significant legislative achievements of his nearly 60-year career in public office. As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Grassley led the historic and record-shattering effort to confirm President Trump's lifetime-appointed judicial nominees.
Over the last two years, Senator Grassley has led the effort in confirming 85 new federal judges. This includes Justice Gorsuch, Justice Kavanaugh, an all-time record 30 circuit judges, and 53 district judges.
At 85 judges appointed under President Trump, Senator Grassley has led the effort to confirm nearly twice as many judges as the 43 judges that President Obama appointed in his first two years in office.
Moreover, in 2017, Senator Grassley led the effort in setting the all-time record for federal circuit judges confirmed during a president's first year in office, at 12 circuit judges confirmed.
And earlier this year, Senator Grassley led the effort in setting the all-time record for federal circuit judges confirmed during a president's first two years in office. The previous record was 22; Senator Grassley helped smash this record, by leading the effort to confirm 30 federal circuit judges in less than 2 years.
And Senator Grassley has readied the field for 2019, when Senator Graham takes over as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator Grassley and the Senate Judiciary Committee have already held hearings for 50 more federal judicial nominees, including 6 more federal circuit nominees, who will have confirmation votes in early 2019. Senator Grassley has put the ball on the tee for his successor.
While Senator Grassley had made this look easy, it certainly was not. Senator Grassley and his team thoroughly vet each of these nominees, carefully examining their backgrounds and qualifications, understanding their judicial philosophy, and carefully assessing their character and fitness to serve. Senator Grassley held 20 nominations hearings this year alone, generally every other Wednesday that the Senate was in session. And Senator Grassley generally held committee meetings for debates and votes on nominees almost every Thursday that the Senate was in session. And Senator Grassley worked both behind the scenes and in public, to build support for these judicial nominees.
This took a significant amount of Senator Grassley's time. But Senator Grassley understands the critical importance of appointing judges who find and apply the law as the public understood the law at the time of its writing. And Senator Grassley also understands the dangers to liberty--in fact, the tyranny--when judges think it is their job to substitute their policy preferences for those of the American people and their elected representatives in Congress.
Fortunately, we are winning. The President is fulfilling his promise to the American people to nominate and appoint judges who are constitutionalists, originalists, and textualists.
Senator Grassley had to overcome historic obstruction by Senate Democrats. The Senate Democrats forced time-wasting and unprecedented cloture votes on 48 of the judicial nominees brought to the Senate floor. How rare are cloture votes for judicial nominees? Only 2 of President Obama's nominees in the first two years faced cloture votes. Only 3 of President George W. Bush's nominees from the first two years faced cloture votes. Only 1 for Clinton; 0 for H.W. Bush; 0 for Reagan.
And the Senate Democrats' obstruction tactics were on full display during the confirmation process for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who the Senate confirmed on October 7, 2018. Senator Grassley oversaw the most comprehensive and transparent confirmation process in history, including fully investigating a number of allegations against Justice Kavanaugh that turned out to be completely meritless.
Senator Grassley and his team reviewed the most documentation in Supreme Court nomination history--including more than 500,000 pages of Justice Kavanaugh's records from his prior government legal service.
Additionally, Senator Grassley and his team also reviewed more than 300 written opinions--more than 10,000 pages--that Justice Kavanaugh wrote or joined in his more than 12 years of service on the D.C. Circuit, the most important federal circuit court in America. We also reviewed more than 17,000 pages of Justice Kavanaugh's academic writings, speeches, and other materials provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to its most expansive questionnaire ever submitted to a nominee.
Even after the 4-day hearing, in which Justice Kavanaugh testified for more than 32 hours, Senate Democrats submitted 1,287 written questions for the record--more than the total number submitted to all prior Supreme Court nominees in our history, combined.
The normal hearing process confirmed for Senator Grassley that Justice Kavanaugh was one of the most qualified, if not the most qualified, Supreme Court nominee in our history. The Senate Democrats and their liberal allies landed no punches. Justice Kavanaugh had gone through 6 prior FBI full-field background investigations, going back to 1993. He had served in the highest positions in the White House and on the second most important court in the land for more than a dozen years. It was very clear that Justice Kavanaugh unquestionably had the character and fitness to serve.
The Senate Democrats and their liberal allies ensured that what should have been a ``normal'' confirmation hearing was anything but normal. From the opening moments, Senate Democrats conducted themselves more like petulant children than United States senators. They interrupted the Chairman with inappropriate motions and wild yelling. Indeed, throughout the hearing, we experienced a senator--who proclaimed to become Spartacus--willfully leaking confidential records, another senator asking misleading innuendo-laced questions with no basis, and other senators doing other outrageous things.
Leftwing allies followed the disgraceful lead of these senators. With Justice Kavanaugh's two young daughters in the room, paid protestors shouted vile things, disrupting the hearing and dragging the process on for hours longer than necessary. This mob-like behavior was apparent throughout the process, as angry paid protestors harassed senators, their families, and their staffs.
When the hearing days were over and it was clear that Justice Kavanaugh was a good man with impeccable credentials, Senate Democrats and their leftwing allies went back to their playbook from the Justice Thomas confirmation. But this time, Senate Democrats and their leftwing allies went even farther, accusing Justice Kavanaugh of being a serial gang-rapist who drugged women at parties in his teenage years and even through his 20s. While the FBI found no evidence of this in any of its previous 6 full-field background investigations conducted during Justice Kavanaugh's 25 years of public service, Senator Grassley nonetheless took the allegations seriously.
More than 20 staff members of Senator Grassley's Oversight
& Investigations Unit and Nominations Unit immediately began investigating these claims. They worked around the clock. Their work was thorough and comprehensive. Senator Grassley was satisfied it contained all the answers he needed, but some senators demanded a supplemental FBI investigation. All senators were able to review that supplemental report, and most were satisfied that it confirmed what we already knew and what Justice Kavanaugh had been saying from the beginning: Justice Kavanaugh was innocent of the outrageous allegations made against him.
After Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation, Senator Grassley's staff produced a report of more than 400 pages, which catalogues the tireless work his staff did in investigating these allegations. This report made clear that some of the people who made the wild accusations against Justice Kavanaugh deserved to be criminally referred to the Justice Department. And Senator Grassley made those criminal referrals.
Senator Grassley felt strongly about making this report public, because it demonstrates his commitment to process--something many Senate Democrats wanted none of. To them, due process is inconvenient when it stands in the way of achieving their political ends. Senator Grassley, however, knows that upholding the constitutional cornerstone of due process, of innocence until proven guilty, was worth fighting for. And Senator Grassley helped deliver justice; Justice Kavanaugh prevailed.
The American people clearly felt the same way. Indeed, in an election that showed big gains for Democrats across the country, Republicans actually gained 2 seats in the Senate. Voters booted out of office Trump-state Senate Democrats who voted against Justice Kavanaugh--like Claire McCaskill from Missouri, Joe Donnelly from Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, and Bill Nelson from Florida. The one Senate Democrat who actually voted the way his constituents wanted him--Joe Manchin from West Virginia--won reelection.
These legislative victories are just more in the long line of wins that the country has seen during Senator Grassley's time chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. Again, Senator Grassley works; Senator Grassley delivers.
Thank you for your continued support of Senator Grassley. And thank you for your continued efforts in helping to find, credential, and appoint judges who share our judicial philosophy. We can never get tired of winning. The stakes are too high.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I am happy to answer your questions.
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