March 6, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 40 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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Nomination of Chad A. Readler (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 40
(Senate - March 06, 2019)
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[Pages S1697-S1698] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Nomination of Chad A. Readler Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the judicial nomination coming up and the cloture vote on the other nominee. With both nominees, I offered the White House cooperation to choose two more moderate nominees for Ohio, both of whom had been vetted by a bipartisan commission Senator Portman and I had, and the White House said they would rather pick these two extremist judges--these two young, far-right judges who have attacked America's healthcare and have attacked the consumer protection on preexisting condition. Judges are making decisions right now--in this body, fortunately, as Members of the Senate, we all have good coverage and health insurance-- that try to take insurance away from millions of Americans and several thousands in my State, even as they have tried to eliminate the consumer protections for those people who have preexisting conditions. There are millions of Americans who are anxious about holding onto their insurance because they get sick a lot and it is expensive to take care of them. They are afraid of having their insurance canceled, and they can't get insurance because of a preexisting condition, and this Congress tried to repeal that law and it failed. Now, Senator McConnell has turned to the Federal Judiciary, and the President of the United States seems to think the only way to eliminate the consumer protection for those with preexisting conditions is through the Judiciary. Judges are making decisions right now on voting rights, on civil rights, on women's rights, LGBT rights, on healthcare, on sentencing, and on corporate power--decisions that could limit those rights for a generation. We know that the Federal Judiciary already puts its thumb on the scales of justice to support corporations over workers, to support Wall Street over consumers, and to support insurance companies over patients. We know that the Federal Judiciary and the Supreme Court have done that dozens of times. We know that the Federal Judiciary, increasingly, is looking like a group of far-right, young, detached people who never go out and get their public opinion pass, as Lincoln said. They never consider what the public wants in this country. Chad Readler, the nominee whom we will vote on in a moment, took it upon himself as a Jones Day lawyer--one of the greatest law firms in the country, headquartered in Cleveland--to write an op-ed as a private citizen saying we should allow the execution of 16-year-olds. He actually wasn't that specific. He implied it could be even younger than that. He said we would allow the execution of teenagers. At a time when this body--something we should be proud of--took important bipartisan steps forward on sentencing reform that was supported by the White House, supported by a lot of Republicans, and supported by virtually all Democrats, how do we turn around and put someone on the bench for life who supports executing children? How does that compute? How we can do that? He argued on behalf of the far-right think tank for the elimination of ``Golden Week'' in Ohio, a period where people can vote early. They can register and vote early. It was passed by a Republican legislature. It has bipartisan support, but not by this rightwing nominee who thinks it is OK to eliminate people's right to vote and restrict it. He defended restrictive voter ID. He defended the squeezing of provisional ballot laws. On the eve of the 54th anniversary tomorrow of Bloody Sunday in Selma, AL, it is shameful to put on the bench another judge who will rubberstamp modern-day literacy tests and poll taxes. Fundamentally, it is the same purpose. You find ways to suppress the vote. You find ways to take people's voting rights away. You find ways to disqualify people who want to vote. Chad Readler's record on healthcare is clear. He has been a ringleader in the Republican effort to take away the protections on preexisting conditions for all Americans. He wrote the White House's brief. We all know that now. He wrote a brief that nobody else above him at the Justice Department was willing to do. Three people refused to write it. One actually resigned. The next day, he was rewarded by this lifetime appointment as a Sixth Circuit Federal judge. Remember that. The White House rewarded him after suggesting that we block the consumer protections for preexisting conditions for millions of Americans and for hundreds of thousands in Virginia, Arkansas, and in Ohio. Millions of Americans would lose their consumer protections under his views, and the next day the White House decided to reward him with a judgeship. As I said, three career attorneys withdrew from the case. One resigned altogether in objection to doing this. Senator Alexander, our friend from Tennessee, who sits near where Senator Kaine is sitting, said this was just amazingly awful language that Chad Readler had suggested. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired. Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for an additional 2 minutes. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, judges are deciding the future of America's healthcare right now, the right to vote right now, civil rights right now, LGBTQ rights right now, women's rights right now. Judges around the country are deciding that. We can't afford to put another out-of- the-mainstream judge on the court--and he is clearly out of the mainstream among Ohio lawyers, among Ohio judges, among Ohio citizens-- who will not defend America's right to healthcare. I ask my colleagues to think about the families you promised to vote for. If any of you in your campaigns, if any of you in discussions you have had with your constituents, if any of you in your public statements, and if any of you running for office committed that you would support consumer protections for preexisting conditions, the only way you can prove you actually believe that is by voting no on Chad Readler in about 1 minute from now. If you really believe in preserving preexisting condition consumer protections so you don't see in your State--in Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, and Ohio--millions of Americans lose their insurance, then your only way to support what you promise is to vote no on Chad Readler. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). Under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired. The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the Readler nomination? Mr. KAINE. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin) is necessarily absent. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber desiring to vote? The result was announced--yeas 52, nays 47, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 37 Ex.] YEAS--52 Alexander Barrasso Blackburn Blunt Boozman Braun Burr Capito Cassidy Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Daines Enzi Ernst Fischer Gardner Graham Grassley Hawley Hoeven Hyde-Smith Inhofe Isakson Johnson Kennedy Lankford Lee McConnell McSally Moran Murkowski Paul Perdue Portman Risch Roberts Romney Rounds Rubio Sasse Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Shelby Sullivan Thune Tillis Toomey Wicker Young NAYS--47 Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Booker Brown Cantwell Cardin Carper Casey Collins Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Feinstein Gillibrand Harris Hassan Heinrich Hirono Jones Kaine King Klobuchar Leahy Markey Menendez Merkley Murphy Murray [[Page S1698]] Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schumer Shaheen Sinema Smith Stabenow Tester Udall Van Hollen Warner Warren Whitehouse Wyden NOT VOTING--1 Manchin The nomination was confirmed. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the President will be immediately notified of the Senate's actions. ____________________
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