Business Before the Senat

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in just a moment, I will move to withdraw the pending cloture petitions and recess the Senate with pro forma meetings until 2 weeks from today. Members will receive at least 24 hours' notice if any votes on urgent matters are scheduled before October 19. That would take bipartisan consent. Otherwise, the full Senate will next meet on October 19.

Obviously, the people's business does not come to a halt in the absence of votes on the floor. The important work of our committees will go forward as each committee sees fit. Chairman Graham has already announced the Judiciary Committee will meet as planned on October 12 to begin considering Judge Barrett's nomination to the Supreme Court. We are full steam ahead with the fair, thorough, and timely confirmation process that Judge Barrett, the Court, and the Nation deserve.

The chairman has indicated the committee will use the same hybrid format--with some participants appearing in person and others appearing over video--that it has successfully used for more than 20 prior hearings this year.

Let me say that again. The Judiciary Committee alone--just that committee--has held more than 20 hybrid hearings since the start of the pandemic. Many of these saw multiple Senators participating via video conference. Some of them saw nominees participating by video conference. At times, the Democratic members of the committee have gone literally out of their way to praise this technology and the chairman's flexibility with this format.

Across all of our committees, we have had 150 hybrid hearings since the pandemic began. The Senate has used this format no fewer than 150 times. We have continued performing our constitutional duties while protecting health and safety during the pandemic.

Our Democratic colleagues have largely welcomed this approach, and they have frequently taken advantage of it. So whatever mix proves to be the right decision at this time next week, it will be completely consistent with the committee's own precedent and with the ways committees all across the Senate have adapted and done their work throughout the pandemic.

Our whole society is using these tools. Earlier today, the Supreme Court itself resumed conducting oral arguments via teleconference, as it has done since last spring. The Senate has been using these processes for months. Just yesterday, the ranking member of the Rules Committee reminded the country that she actually helped set them up.

It is nonsense for Senate Democrats to turn on a dime and now pretend these procedures are somehow no longer workable. It is nonsense to suggest that the tools that Senate Democrats have been happily using across all of our committees for months have suddenly gone bad overnight.

Nobody is taking these disingenuous tactics at face value because the Democrats have told everyone, out loud, about their real intentions. For weeks now, numerous Senate Democrats have publicly promised they would try every trick in the book--every trick in the book--every maneuver available, to obstruct and delay a fair confirmation process.

Weeks ago, the junior Senator from Hawaii pledged: ``I will look for every procedural tool that I can [find] to make sure that this does not happen.''

Weeks ago, the senior Senator from Massachusetts: ``We need to use every tool. . . . We need to think seriously about everything we can do to try to slow this down.''

The No. 2 Democratic Senator, our friend from Illinois, has said: ``we [will] use whatever tools we have available'' to ``slow things down.''

Just yesterday, in the very same press conference where the Democratic leader claimed that his latest call to delay the hearings were rooted in health and safety concerns, he gave the game away just moments later. In that same press conference, he admitted, ``We will use every tool in the toolbox to delay''--so much about health and safety concerns.

Our Democratic colleagues have admitted out loud what all these stalling tactics are about. Senate Democrats have openly admitted they are grasping at straws to block the exceedingly well-qualified nominee from receiving a fair and prompt process.

Look, we have months of experience governing this way while protecting health and safety here in the Senate. This body will not cease to function just because Democrats are afraid they may lose a vote. Chairman Graham has all the options and procedures he needs to supervise a fair, thorough, and hopefully dignified confirmation hearing next week. That is just what is going to happen.

I look forward to seeing Judge Barrett's brilliance and qualifications on full display starting 1 week from today.

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