Republicans Continue To Block Durbin's Attempt To Confirm U.S. Attorney Nominates On The Senate Floor

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today on the Senate floor requested unanimous consent (UC) to confirm four U.S. Attorney nominations being held by U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH)—Matthew Gannon, nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa; Rebecca Lutzko, nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio; Joshua Levy, nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts; and David Waterman, nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa.

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, U.S. Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) objected to Durbin’s unanimous consent request today.

On seven previous occasions over the last year, Durbin attempted to confirm U.S. Attorney nominees being held up by Vance. During his speech on the floor, Durbin called out the hypocrisy of Vance’s “tough on crime” rhetoric while he simultaneously blocks the confirmation of federal prosecutors, including the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio for more than a year.

“While the entire nation has been impacted by the opioid epidemic, Ohio is one of the states that has been hit the hardest. In 2023, nearly 4,500 Ohio residents died from an accidental drug overdose… The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio could focus her attention on combatting this drug crisis with the DEA’s Operation Overdrive. This operation set up in a location in Toledo due to the city’s ‘copious violent crimes including homicides, shootings, assaults, and drug overdoses,’” Durbin said. “We’re talking about serious prosecutions and a team of effective professionals to fight them… Instead, the nomination of Rebecca Lutzko has languished for more than a year because of the objection of the junior Senator from Ohio.”

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 Biden Administration, 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 one of his Republican colleagues refused to allow the Senate to confirm nearly a dozen Justice Department nominees by voice vote—the typical practice. Following a unanimous consent request, the Republican Senator eventually lifted his objections and allowed those nominees to be confirmed.

“It would not have been fair or realistic to force the Senate to debate and vote on every single one of [Trump’s] nominees… [Democrats] put public safety and the needs of law enforcement ahead of politics,” Durbin said. “But now, they [Senate Republicans] are putting us on the path to requiring cloture and confirmation votes for every U.S. Attorney nominee. This is entirely unsustainable, which is something everyone here knows. Without Senate-confirmed leadership of U.S. Attorneys, public safety will suffer across the United States. [Republicans] cannot delay these nominations and then stand up and say they are for ‘law and order’ and want to ‘fight crime.’”

Durbin concluded, “These highly qualified nominees have the strong support of their home state Senators, including several members of the Republican caucus. And if President Biden has been accused of misuse of the Justice Department, we shouldn’t take that out on these individuals who are competent and qualified to keep us safe. Until we confirm them, law enforcement agencies in Iowa, Massachusetts, and Ohio will be stymied in their ability to fight crime.”

Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

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