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[Pages S5617-S5618]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FILIBUSTERS
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now, since Democrats are stonewalling
pandemic relief, the Senate is using our time to confirm more well-
qualified judicial nominees to lifetime positions on the Federal bench.
Renewing the Federal judiciary has been a major success over the last 4
years.
[[Page S5618]]
Since January 2017, President Trump has nominated, and this
Republican Senate has confirmed, 211 article III judges, including 53
circuit judges. That is the second most appellate confirmations of any
President in American history at this point in their term.
This isn't a partisan victory. The President has sent us impressive,
qualified men and women who understand the radical notion that the job
of judge is to actually follow the law--follow the law. It is a victory
for our Constitution itself, but, believe me, this progress has not
come easy.
Throughout the last 4 years, our Senate Democratic colleagues have
visited a historic degree of obstruction upon this President and his
efforts to stand up the administration that the American people
actually elected.
Senate Democrats have forced us to break more filibusters on
nominations since 2017--now listen to this--than had occurred
cumulatively in all of Senate history--all of Senate history--before
President Trump was sworn in. I am going to say that again.
Senate Democrats have forced us to break more filibusters on
nominations since 2017 than had occurred cumulatively in all of Senate
history before President Trump was sworn in. They have attempted to
filibuster more nominations in the last 3 years than the sum total of
all prior Senates--from 1789 through 2016 added together.
What was once a rare roadblock for the most controversial people has
now become a daily norm. Before 2017, before this Senate Democratic
minority got to work, only 5 percent of all nominations to district
courts and circuit courts had been subjected to filibusters. I will say
it again.
Before 2017, before this Senate Democratic minority got to work, only
5 percent of all nominations to district courts and circuit courts had
been subjected to filibusters. Under President Trump, the number has
been 80 percent--80 percent. Our Democratic colleagues even obstruct
nominees they don't even oppose. We have taken more than 100 cloture
votes on district judges, even though district court nominees from any
State with a Democratic Senator could not have even gotten out of
committee without Democratic support.
So, to summarize, here is what we are doing this week. We are
breaking Democratic filibusters on nominations because Democrats are
filibustering coronavirus relief. And let us not forget the cherry on
top. Because self-awareness apparently no longer exists, our Democratic
colleagues have chosen this very moment to argue that they shouldn't
have to play by any of these rules if they ever get power themselves.
President Obama calls the filibuster ``a relic of Jim Crow,'' even as
Senate Democrats use it over and over and over again. Democrats
filibustered police reform and filibustered pandemic relief for working
families. Some years back, the Democratic leader told the newspaper:
``I am the leader of the filibuster movement [and] I am proud of it.''
That was the Democratic leader.
But now--now--they are saying that if they ever get power, they
intend to tear up the rule book to force radicalism on our country.
They want to break the rules to pass the kinds of radical, far-left
policies that former Vice President Biden has rushed--rushed--to
embrace, from abortion to socialism, to cracking down on the Second
Amendment.
And that is not all. It is not just about bad policies. They want to
go even deeper and hot-wire--hot-wire--our democracy itself. The far
left is salivating over the prospect of killing the filibuster in order
to pack the Supreme Court, pack the Senate with new States, and tilt
the playing field permanently so they can never lose power again.
This is not some rightwing conspiracy theory. These are the signals
they are sending publicly right now. This is what the left is saying
out there. Maybe this hard-left hypocrisy plays well in a few big
coastal cities. Maybe the angry crowds that are pulling down statues of
our Founding Fathers want Senators who will pull down government
institutions as well. Most Americans see things differently.
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