Durbin Calls Out The Hypocrisy Of Vance's Inflammatory Comments About The City Of Chicago

CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today called out the hypocrisy of Senator J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) inflammatory comments about the City of Chicago while he simultaneously blocks the confirmation of federal prosecutors, including the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

For months, Durbin repeatedly went to the Senate floor to request unanimous consent (UC) to schedule confirmation votes on two U.S. Attorney nominations that were being held by Senator Vance—Rebecca C. Lutzko, nominated to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio; and April M. Perry, who was nominated to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. U.S. Attorneys are empowered to prosecute all federal criminal offenses and are an integral part of our justice system. Despite these nominees’ eminent qualifications, Senator Vance continuously objected to Durbin’s UC requests.

“Calling Chicago ‘the murder capital of the United States of America thanks to very failed Democrat leadership’ is cheap and ironic coming from the junior Senator from Ohio, who represents two Ohio cities with a higher murder rate in a state that is Republican controlled.

“Senator Vance loves to preach ‘law and order’ while personally setting out to ‘grind [the Justice Department] to a halt’ and holding up U.S. Attorney nominees, including Rebecca Lutzko, who is nominated to be U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“Senator Vance would rather kiss up to Donald Trump than defend our nation from deadly fentanyl and cartels.”

For decades, the Senate has confirmed U.S. Attorneys by voice vote or unanimous consent after they have been considered in the Judiciary Committee. Before the 117th Congress, the last time the Senate required a roll call vote on confirmation of a U.S. Attorney nominee was 1975. During the Trump Administration, 85 of President Trump’s U.S. Attorney nominees moved through the Judiciary Committee—of those 85, the Senate confirmed all by unanimous consent.

That precedent changed last Congress when Durbin went through this exercise twice when a Republican colleague refused to allow the Senate to confirm nearly a dozen Justice Department nominees by voice vote—the typical practice. Following a unanimous consent request, that Senator eventually lifted his objections and allowed those nominees to be confirmed.

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