| Nomination Of George Levi Russell Iii, To Be United States District Judge For The District Of Maryland |
May 14, 2012 |
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Richard Durbin, D-IL
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"I am glad Mr. Tharp is finally getting a vote in the Senate. It has taken a long time. In fact, it has taken too long for this day to come. Nominees who are noncontroversial, eminently qualified, who go through the committee without even a hint of resistance from Democrats or Republicans shouldn’t have to sit on this calendar for week after week and month after month. It has now become standard around here, as have these mind-numbing filibusters become standard around here, and it isn’t fair."
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| Executive Session |
April 16, 2012 |
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Patrick Leahy, D-VT
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"Today’s vote is pursuant to the agreement reached by the majority leader and the Republican leader last month. This is the first Court of Appeals nominee to receive a vote pursuant to that agreement. This is only the second Court of Appeals nominee to receive a Senate vote all year. Both were qualified, consensus nominees who should have been confirmed last year and would have been but for Republican filibusters."
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| Proposing A Minimum Effective Tax Rate For High-Income Taxpayers— Motion To Proceed |
March 27, 2012 |
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Barbara Boxer, D-CA
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"Anyone watching the Senate today sees how paralyzed we are. We have not been able to do a thing. There are filibusters on fixing the post offices. There are filibusters on making sure that Big Oil doesn’t keep ripping off consumers at the pump. Filibuster, filibuster, filibuster, filibuster. But we were able to get over all of that and pass a transportation bill. Why wouldn’t the House be thrilled about that? Why wouldn’t the House embrace what we did? Why would the House instead stand up again today and say, We are going to have a 60-day extension. Guess what. They pulled it. They are not having a vote on that today because of the uproar it is creating in the States and on the House floor. The House has not delivered on its promise for a bill. All the leadership does is complain about our bill."
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| Moving Ahead For Progress In The 21St Century Act |
March 14, 2012 |
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Jeff Merkley, D-OR
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"The Senate of 1976 would never have entertained the idea that well-qualified nominees would be routinely subjected to filibusters. Indeed, even throughout most of the last decade, this has not been the case. So imagine my surprise when I came here as a new Senator in 2009, revisiting the Chamber I came to as a youth in 1976, and I discovered the two Senates bore little resemblance to each other; that the reasonably responsive, bipartisan, collaborative body of 1976 had been replaced with a Senate now paralyzed due to the abuse of the filibuster and the supermajority."
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