| The Budget |
February 16, 2012 |
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Patrick Leahy, D-VT
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"When I first became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 2001, I followed a time when Senate Republicans, who had been in the majority, had pocket filibustered more than 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominations, blocking them with secret holds in backrooms and cloakrooms, obstructing more with winks and nods, but with little to no public explanation or accountability. I worked hard to change that and to open up the process. I sought to bring daylight to the process by making the consultation with home state Senators public so that the Senate Republicans’ abuses during the Clinton years would not be repeated."
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| Nomination Of Adalberto Jose Jordan To Be United States Circuit Judge For The Eleventh Circuit—Continued |
February 14, 2012 |
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Patrick Leahy, D-VT
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"When I first became chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 2001, I followed a time when Senate Republicans, who had been in the majority, had pocket filibustered more than 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominations, blocking them with secret holds in backrooms and cloakrooms, obstructing more with winks and nods, but with little to no public explanation or accountability. I worked hard to change that and to open up the process. I sought to bring daylight to the process by making the consultation with home State Senators public so that the Senate Republicans’ abuses during the Clinton years would not be repeated."
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| Citizens United Anniversary |
January 26, 2012 |
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Ron Wyden, D-OR
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"I thank the Senator from New York for his courtesy. I too will be brief. It is an extraordinary honor to represent Oregon in the Senate. Having this special privilege, I have tried to make the lodestar of my service transparency and accountability. It is why I worked with the distinguished Senator from Missouri Mrs. McCaskill to end secret holds in the Senate."
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| Executive Session |
December 17, 2011 |
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Patrick Leahy, D-VT
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"If Republican Senators were concerned about ensuring that our courts have the judges they need to administer justice for the American people, they would not have refused consent for the Senate to consider these consensus judicial nominees. The secret holds and obstructive blocks remind me of the Republican pocket filibusters that blocked more than 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominations from Senate consideration. When I became Chairman in 2001 and made the Committee blue slip process public for the first time and worked to confirm 100 judicial nominees of a conservative Republican President in 17 months, I hoped we had gotten past these partisan tactics. I am disappointed after working for more than a decade to restore transparency and fairness to the process of considering judicial nominations that we see the Senate Republicans again using anonymous holds to block progress at filling judicial vacancies."
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| Executive Session |
December 12, 2011 |
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Charles Grassley, R-IA
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"The President announced Mr. Eisen’s nomination to be Ambassador to the Czech Republic on June 28, 2010. On September 20, 2010, I provided public notice of my intention to object to the nomination. In other words, as I always do when I put a hold on something—a bill or a nomination—I put a reason in the Congressional Record so that everybody knows it is me. I am not a secret-holds guy."
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