Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, April 10, 2025
Good morning. Today, we’ve got three items on our agenda.
The nominations of John Eisenberg and Brett Shumate to be Assistant Attorneys General are listed for the first time, and we’ll hold them over until our next meeting.
This is our second meeting on the nomination of Patrick Davis to serve as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legislative Affairs, so we’ll vote on him today.
I know we have several members with busy schedules this morning, so I’ll plan to call the vote on the Davis nomination immediately after Ranking Member Durbin gives his remarks.
Regarding Mr. Davis, I won’t repeat my introduction from his hearing, but will simply say that he is the right man for the job and I’m pleased to support him.
Mr. Davis used to work for me, and I know that he takes seriously the obligation of the Department of Justice to work with Congress to serve the American people.
He’ll be an effective public servant, and he should be responsive to Committee Members’ requests.
I look forward to continuing our excellent working relationship.
Before we get to the vote, I want to address one other matter.
It has long been Committee practice that we don’t hold hearings on U.S. Attorney nominations.
However, last week Senator Durbin raised a number of issues about the nomination of Ed Martin to be U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
He initially said that he wanted to hold a vote today on whether to hold a hearing on the nomination.
I understand that he has agreed to wait until we received the written responses from the nominee before he makes his request.
Mr. Martin has received over 500 Questions for the Record from Senators on the Committee, which is far more than the normal amount for a U.S. Attorney nominee.
I’ve submitted questions for Mr. Martin as well.
I believe the nominee is entitled to respond in writing, under our normal committee practice, before the committee takes further action.
I thank Senator Durbin for working with me on this.
I’ll now recognize Ranking Member Durbin for his opening remarks.
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