June 13, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 99 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page S3451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this week the Senate has been 
remarkably productive in confirming more of the President's well-
qualified nominees. We have confirmed nine newly minted judges to fill 
vacancies on the Federal bench.
  Today we will turn to the executive branch and confirm David Stilwell 
to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific 
Affairs and Edward Crawford to serve as Ambassador to Ireland.
  Remember, earlier this spring, we put in place a modest reform to 
Senate rules so we could consider these uncontroversial, lower level 
nominations at a more reasonable pace. That had been the Senate's 
normal tradition until very recently, and so we restored it.
  At the time, I recall my friends across the aisle insisting that the 
majority would use these more efficient procedures to push through all 
kinds of polarizing and controversial people. That is what they 
argued--if we made this modest rule change, we would be pushing through 
all these polarizing and controversial people.
  Well, here are a few of the rollcall votes the Senate has taken on 
nominations this week: 91 to 5, 62 to 34, 77 to 19, 85 to 11. Yesterday 
afternoon, on a procedural vote for Mr. Stilwell, it was 93 to 4. A 
pretty controversial bunch.
  So virtually all of us can remember a time when nominations of this 
sort would have passed the Senate on a voice vote. These days, 
Democrats are making us file cloture and spend floor time on each, but 
at least our new Senate rules are helping us get these thoroughly 
bipartisan nominees through at a more efficient pace.

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