During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) criticized Democrats for delaying the confirmations for President Trump's nominees.
00:07Mr. President, today I want to address a serious matter of public safety facing our country.
00:15Although our government has many responsibilities, the foremost responsibility of any government is the protection and safety of its citizens.
00:26By many measures, as elected leaders, we're falling short.
00:34Recent polling indicates that crime in large cities is a major concern of 81% of the Americans.
00:43We can debate crime trends and statistics until we're blue in the face.
00:49But at the end of the day, if 81% of the Americans don't feel safe,
00:55we are not doing our job.
00:58For hundreds of years, we've known that swift and certain punishment for criminal acts is a basis of deterrence and order.
01:08And in a country such as ours, based on the rule of law, this kind of deterrence requires officials to prosecute criminals.
01:19Communities around our country are in desperate need of U.S. attorneys to protect the public and uphold the rule of law.
01:31We have 10 highly qualified nominees on the Senate floor right now waiting for confirmation.
01:38There's no reason that we shouldn't get them to work for the American people today.
01:44Unfortunately, my Democratic colleagues have engaged in blanket obstruction of all nominees in their misguided attempt to derail the Trump administration.
01:57This sweeping obstruction, shockingly, includes even highly qualified U.S. attorneys that are supported by Democratic senators.
02:10The actions of Senate Democrats are putting the public in harm's way.
02:16There's simply no other way to say it.
02:20On May 22nd, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee announced a hold on nominations for U.S. attorneys for the Southern District of Florida.
02:33Since then, the Senate Minority Leader and Senate Democrats have expanded the hold to apply to all 93 U.S. senators.
02:45This blockade of public officials is unprecedented and untenable.
02:52As the ranking member explained just last Congress, obstructing the confirmation of U.S. attorneys is, quote, unquote, dangerous and, quote, undermines public safety across the entire nation, end quote.
03:07He correctly noted, quote, you can't prosecute the case if you don't have the U.S. attorneys there to lead the effort and coordinate the efforts with other branches of government, end quote.
03:22I completely agree with these points made by my friend, Senator Durbin.
03:29My Democratic colleagues claim that their obstruction is justified because at the end of the Biden administration, a freshman senator at that time placed a hold on a handful of U.S. attorneys.
03:44Although only five U.S. attorneys were ultimately blocked by that hold, I even opposed the decision by my freshman Democrat colleague.
03:56That limited hold was wrong then, and this blanket hold is even more wrong at this point.
04:04Five U.S. attorneys held by a freshman senator at the end of an administration is a far cry from the current widespread obstruction.
04:16The strategy today is orchestrated by Senate Democratic leadership and is occurring at the beginning of an administration and impacts all 93 U.S. attorneys.
04:31Last Congress, the Democratic quip said that requiring a roll call vote for all U.S. senators is, quote, unquote, unsustainable because, quote, without Senate-confirmed leadership of U.S. attorneys, public safety will suffer across the United States, end quote.
04:54He was entirely correct, confirming each U.S. attorney by a roll call would consume more than 230 hours of valuable floor time in the Senate.
05:06So what has changed now?
05:11Why are the same Democrats who decried the obstruction—I've got to—pardon me.
05:19So what has changed?
05:26Why are some the same Democrats who decried the obstruction of U.S. attorneys last year engaging in that very same conduct today?
05:38The answer is that they don't like the President of the United States.
05:44I understand disagreement with the President.
05:49People know that I have had my disagreements with President Trump.
05:55I certainly had no shortage of objections also to the conduct of President Biden.
06:03But elections have consequences.
06:05And the President's ability to select these U.S. attorneys is a direct reflection of the electoral mandate of November 2024,
06:17a mandate that no Republican president has had since Reagan had that same mandate in 1984.
06:28For months, I've repeatedly tried to engage my Democratic colleagues to end this obstruction.
06:37If some kind of equal measure is necessary, I even offered a compromise where we hold five roll call votes to compensate for the five nominees returned to the President at the end of the Biden administration.
06:54To my disappointment, my Democratic colleagues haven't taken me up on that offer,
07:01although I've had some very satisfying discussions with them in the late hours.
07:11I hope that we get a relenting of that.
07:15And whatever it takes, I'm going to participate in that process.
07:20And I think that I'm finding the same sort of participation on the other side.
07:25But in the meantime, I remind my Democratic colleagues of the ranking member's own warning last Congress
07:34when he admonished the Senate needs to, quote,
07:37put public safety and the needs of law enforcement ahead of politics, end quote.
07:43Currently, there are ten U.S. attorney nominees that have been reported favorably out of the committee by a voice vote.
07:52These are not controversial nominees.
07:55Three of them carry blue slips returned by Democratic senators.
08:00Several of them are in districts where recent tragic crimes have taken place.
08:07Instead of languishing on the Senate floor as pawns of partisan obstruction,
08:12these nominees should be in their districts investigating crimes, prosecuting criminals, and keeping the American people safe.
08:24Take the nomination of Daniel Rosen to the District of Minnesota as one example.
08:31Mr. Rosen was reported out of committee by voice vote.
08:36He has the support of his home state senators, Klobuchar and Smith, both Democrats.
08:43He is a qualified nominee.
08:46Just last week in Minnesota, a shooter entered the service of an annunciation Catholic church, murdering two little children and injuring 18 others.
08:58This horrific crime shocked our nations, and the full force of our government should be mobilized in response.
09:05But what are Democrats doing instead?
09:08They're blocking the confirmation of Mr. Rosen to be the chief federal law enforcement officer in Minnesota,
09:15not because of any objection to his qualifications, but as an act of partisanship.
09:22So, enough is enough.
09:24My priority is safety of the American people, and that priority should be shared by all members of this body.
09:31And I know that even Democrats, I shouldn't say even Democrats, I know Democrats also want that same public safety.
09:41But this business of not having U.S. attorneys is standing in the way.
09:47I will now ask unanimous consent to confirm the ten U.S. attorneys who have been reported out of committee.
09:56I hope that my Democrat colleagues will relent from their partisan obstruction and allow these nominations to get to work.
10:05Debate and disagreement about policy is to be expected, but it should never come at the expense of public safety.
10:12So, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding Rule 22, the Senate proceed to the executive session to consider the nominations
10:21on block, David Waterman, Iowa, that's 176, 183, Ron Parsons, South Dakota, 257, David Metcalf, Pennsylvania, 258, Bart Davis, Idaho,
10:39316, Kurt Almey, Montana, 317, Nicholas Chase, North Dakota, 318, Leslie Murphy, Nebraska, 319, Daniel Rosen, Minnesota, 320, Eric Siebert, Virginia,
10:59and 321, Kurt Wall of Louisiana, that the Senate vote on the nomination en bloc without intervening action or debate.
11:09The motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
11:14That the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate resume legislative session.
11:21Is there objection?
11:23Reserving the right to object.
11:25Democratic Whip.
11:27Mr. President, I rise today to explain where we are, but with a positive note in my message.
11:36Let me start by saying my friendship and respect for the Senator from Iowa should be a matter of record,
11:42and I think we share feelings for one another.
11:45We've had the distinction and honor of serving together for many years,
11:49and there are reform packages that have passed with our joint effort that I'm very proud of as part of my legislative career.
11:58This particular issue sounds like a boring housekeeping issue, but it's much more than that.
12:06Every President has the right to nominate people to serve as U.S. Attorneys across the United States.
12:15These U.S. Attorneys represent that President's Department of Justice and make critical prosecutorial decisions to keep their people safe and to execute the laws of the land.
12:25There are some 90 different U.S. Attorneys.
12:29To say that it has become routine in the past is an understatement.
12:34Under President Trump's first term in office, those four years, the Senate confirmed U.S. Attorneys for President Trump in his first term,
12:43all 85 by voice vote unanimous consent, all 85 U.S. Attorneys.
12:51Then things changed.
12:53President Trump stepped aside and was defeated in the election and replaced by President Joseph Biden.
13:00Early in the Biden administration, several Republican senators began an unprecedented campaign of obstruction.
13:08In April 2021, the junior senator from Arkansas announced that he would block nominees from any state represented by Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.
13:19I was chairman of the committee at the time, and it meant that some dozen Democrats could not have U.S. Attorneys approved on the floor of the Senate,
13:28because one Republican junior senator said, I'll block them all.
13:32I'll block them all, he said.
13:34That senator finally lifted his hold in December of 2021.
13:38But in February of 2022, he again blocked all U.S. Attorney nominees for months.
13:44Talk about obstruction. We were living with it.
13:47In June of 2023, the junior senator from the state of Ohio, a Republican, announced that he would place a blanket hold on, quote,
13:56all Department of Justice nominees, including U.S. Attorneys, to, quote, grind the Justice Department to a halt.
14:05He said that. Grind the Justice Department to a halt under President Biden.
14:10On eight separate occasions, I came to the floor in 2023 and 24, asking for consent to confirm the pending nominees for U.S. Attorney.
14:21Each time, my efforts were blocked by that junior senator from Ohio and several senators who are on the floor today.
14:28They stopped me. It was obstruction in a classic sense.
14:32Due to this Republican obstruction, President Biden was unable to fill, or was only able to fill, 68 of the 93 U.S. Attorney positions with Senate-confirmed nominees.
14:45So that junior senator from Ohio stopped the process.
14:50Stopped the process.
14:52I appreciate that Senator Grassley said today and said at the time that he did not agree with the strategy.
15:00He would not try to defend it today, and he didn't.
15:05But we can't have one set of rules when we have a Republican president and another set of rules when there's Democrats.
15:13We also now face the Trump administration making an end around the Senate's advising consent duty.
15:21In several blue states, the Trump administration has taken on an illegal and unprecedented approach to filling U.S. Attorney vacancies,
15:29with extreme and unqualified nominees while making no attempt to consult with Democratic senators.
15:35I said earlier in a Judiciary Committee meeting, though I disagreed with President Trump in his first term and second term,
15:42I was able to work with the White House and fill every vacancy in Illinois.
15:47We compromised.
15:48I accepted some nominees that would not have been my choice.
15:51They accepted some nominees from me that wouldn't have been their choice.
15:54It was the nature of political compromise, and it worked.
15:58Any path forward cannot result in Republican senators having their U.S. attorneys nominated and confirmed
16:04and Democratic senators having outrageous picks installed in their states in legally dubious ways.
16:11I look forward to working with a senator from Iowa, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
16:16on a fair and bipartisan solution to a problem that was created by both parties,
16:21but most recently by the Senate Republicans and has been made worse by the Trump administration.
16:26So I want to close in saying before I object, I am not giving up.
16:31The conversation, meaningful conversation, is underway.
16:34I am hopeful we can find a bipartisan approach that serves the needs of the nation when it comes to justice,
16:40but also respects the integrity of the United States Senate.
16:44I object.
16:47The objection is heard.
16:49Mr. President.
16:50Senator from Iowa.
16:51I'm sorry for the objection.
16:53I would agree with continuing to work to see if we can find a solution on this.
16:59Public safety is such an important issue.
17:02U.S. attorneys are central to such public safety, and we should get them proved,
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