Senate Continues to Confirm President Trump’s Well-Qualified Nominees
‘And already this week we’ve confirmed two more outstanding jurists to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Patrick Bumatay of California and Lawrence Van Dyke of Nevada….Each of these jurists is well qualified. Each has widespread respect from their legal peers. And now they are the 49th and 50th circuit judges nominated by President Trump and confirmed by this Senate in the last three years.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding nominations:
‘I’ve spoken at length about the serious impact that Democrats’ impeachment obsession has had on months worth of important legislative priorities.
‘For months, Republicans have been calling for bipartisan solutions to the NDAA, to the appropriations process, and more. But only in the last couple of days, here in mid-December, have our Democratic colleagues gotten sufficiently serious about these must-pass bills.
‘In the meantime, while we’ve waited on House Democrats to act, the Senate has made good use of our floor time to complete the American people’s business with respect to nominations. Last week alone, the Senate confirmed two executive branch nominations and put eight impressive jurists in seats on federal district courts. This week we’ve considered yet another slate of the president’s well-qualified nominees.
‘Today, the Senate will consider John Sullivan of Maryland to serve as Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Stephen Hahn of Texas to serve as Commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration, and Aurelia Skipwith of Indiana to be Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
‘And already this week we’ve confirmed two more outstanding jurists to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit: Patrick Bumatay of California and Lawrence Van Dyke of Nevada.
‘Mr. Bumatay is a graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law. He’s clerked for the Eastern District of New York and the 10th Circuit, practiced in the private sector, and served in a variety of roles with the Department of Justice.
‘Mr. Van Dyke graduated from Montana State University and Harvard Law. His career has included a clerkship with the DC Circuit, time as a state Solicitor General, and service as Deputy Assistant Attorney General at DOJ.
‘Each of these jurists is well qualified. Each has widespread respect from their legal peers. And now they are the 49th and 50th circuit judges nominated by President Trump and confirmed by this Senate in the last three years.
‘As I’ve said before, these kinds of milestones are emphatically not partisan achievements. It is not one party or the other that benefits when our federal courts consist of men and women who understand that a judge’s job is to follow the law, not to make the law.
‘The entire country benefits from that. Our constitutional system benefits from that.
‘If judges applying our laws and our Constitution as they’re written strikes anybody as a threat to their particular agenda, it’s their agenda that needs to change, not the judiciary that the framers intended.’
Related Issues: NDAA, Nominations, Appropriations
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