04.29.19

Senate Begins Consideration of Another Slate of Well-Qualified Nominees

‘Now, when I last spoke here on the floor, the Senate had taken an important step toward restoring the sort of comity and efficiency that once governed our consideration of uncontroversial nominations… Two years of unprecedented obstruction can’t be reversed overnight. But we’ve taken some important steps in the right direction and this week we’ll take several more.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the following remarks on the Senate floor regarding the need to confirm more of the president’s well-qualified nominees:

“Now, when I last spoke here on the floor, the Senate had taken an important step toward restoring the sort of comity and efficiency that once governed our consideration of uncontroversial nominations. In the face of across-the-board, systematic opposition and delaying tactics for even the most politically uncontroversial of the president’s nominees, the Senate took action and brought this chapter of pure partisan calculation to an end.

“And subsequently we began doing business at a more normal, more reasonable pace. We confirmed a number of qualified public servants who still went on to receive bipartisan support for confirmation -- but did so in a fraction of the time it had been taking. So today, we’ll begin consideration of yet another slate of well-qualified candidates for service in the executive branch and on the federal courts.

“We’ll consider three individuals to join the President’s team, beginning with William Cooper of Maryland to serve as General Counsel to the Department of Energy. And then we’ll consider five nominees to fill federal district court vacancies in Texas, Alabama, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Pennsylvania. There is still so much work to be done. Two years of unprecedented obstruction can’t be reversed overnight. But we’ve taken some important steps in the right direction and this week we’ll take several more.”

Related Issues: Senate Democrats, Nominations, Judicial Nominations, Restoring the Senate