Prepared
Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman,
Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive
Business Meeting
January 11,
2018
Good morning.
First, I’d like to welcome the new members to the Committee, Senators Booker
and Harris. I understand that Senator Booker is unable to be here this morning
due to a prior commitment, but I extend my warm welcome to both of them. I look
forward to working with each of you on issues that matter deeply to us and to
the Committee.
I was proud of
the good work that the Committee did last year, from confirming an excellent
Supreme Court Justice and 12 Circuit Court judges, to enacting the Elder Abuse
Prevention and Prosecution Act and passing Kevin and Avonte’s Law. I look
forward to working with all the members of the Committee this year to continue
to fill judicial vacancies and pass good legislation that makes America safer
and stronger.
Turning now to
today’s agenda. We’re considering a large number of nominees, most of whom have
been through the Committee already. These nominees received hearings and
Committee votes last year, but they were not yet confirmed by the full Senate.
When we adjourned in December, there would normally have been a unanimous
consent agreement to disregard the rule that unconfirmed nominees would not be
sent back to the White House.
Unfortunately,
the minority allowed only some of the nominees to remain in the Senate. Many
nominees were sent back to the White House. Today, the Committee has before it
those nominees who were then re-nominated by the White House this year.
Because these
nominees were re-nominated, rather than simply carried over to this year, they
must be considered by the Committee again, even if their nominations had
already been sent to the Senate floor.
Past Chairmen
haven’t required that these nominees appear before the whole Committee for a
hearing again, but I am allowing the new Members of the Committee to have an
opportunity to submit Questions for the Record to any of the nominees before
us, if they’d like the chance to do so. I’ve requested that they submit their
questions by close of business tomorrow.
Today, we’ll
vote to send to the full Senate the nominations of one District Court nominee,
two US Attorney nominees, and two US Marshal nominees.
One of the US
Marshal nominees on the agenda today is Mr. Ted Kamatchus for the Southern District
of Iowa. I’m proud to support his nomination. He has a distinguished record of
public service in Iowa. He began his career as a police officer for the Le
Center, Waterville, and Marshalltown Police Departments, where he served as an
officer for nearly two decades.
Since 1988,
he’s served as Sheriff for the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. He’s been a
member of the National Sheriff’s Association since 1989, the Iowa State
Sheriff’s and Deputies Association since 1988, as well as involvement with many
other law enforcement organizations.
Mr. Kamatchus
has received dozens of awards from a wide range of organizations throughout his
distinguished career, and I believe he’ll make an excellent US Marshal and urge
all my colleagues to support his nomination today.
The minority
has requested we hold over the re-nominations this week, which is their right
to do. So, the following nominees will be held over:
-
Elizabeth
Branch, Eleventh Circuit
-
Kyle
Duncan, Fifth Circuit
-
David
Stras, Eighth Circuit
-
Annemarie
Axon, Northern District of Alabama
-
Stan
Baker, Southern District of Georgia
-
Jeffrey
Beaverstock, Southern District of Alabama
-
Liles
Burke, Northern District of Alabama
-
Thomas
Farr, Eastern District of North Carolina
-
Charles
Goodwin, Western District of Oklahoma
-
Michael
Juneau, Western District of Louisiana
-
Matthew
Kacsmaryk [KAZ-MAR-ICK], Northern District of Texas
-
Emily
Marks, Middle District of Alabama
-
Terry
Moorer, Southern District of Alabama
-
Mark
Norris, Western District of Tennessee
-
William
Ray, Northern District of Georgia
-
Eli
Richardson, Middle District of Tennessee
-
Holly
Teeter, District of Kansas
-
Brian
Benczkowski, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division
-
Jeffrey
Clark, Assistant Attorney General, Environment and Natural Resources Division
-
Eric
Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division
I’ll now turn
to Senator Feinstein for her remarks.
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