The Standing Rules of the Senate are drafted to encourage vigorous public debate on our nation’s most important issues. Indeed, the U.S. Senate is often referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” The Rules allow any Senator to seek recognition from the Chair at any time and, absent a temporary agreement to the contrary, to speak without interruption so long as he or she wishes. Debating important questions before the Senate is one way a Senator can highlight an issue, advocate for a change in policy, or voice his or her opinion on pending legislation.
Senate debate occurs in public, and is televised on CSPAN and transcribed in the Congressional Record. For your convenience, I post transcripts of my Senate floor speeches on this site for your review. I hope you find them informative and useful. My web site also makes available information on my voting record and legislation that I have sponsored in the Senate.
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Sessions Speaks on Judges
Mr. REID. I will be happy to yield for a question.
Mr. SESSIONS. I appreciate the many challenges the majority leader has, and a lot of difficult people. Sometimes cats are hard to herd, as Trent Lott used to say. But the deal and the concern was so great--if I could ask the majority leader--what about the understanding we thought existed that there would be confirmed an average number of circuit court of appeals judges this Congress, which would be 17 or so nominees? Is that still afoot or is that somehow being forgotten? We hear talk that maybe few if any more circuit judges will be confirmed. That is what has caused a great deal of angst on this side of the aisle.
Mr. REID. We committed to do the three judges. We got one done. We will do our best to get two done. But we have been held up doing that as the member of the Judiciary Committee understands. We had to wait for the ABA report to come in again. I don't know where that stands, but we are moving forward on those, and we are going to try to do our very best to get those done as soon as we can.
Mr. SESSIONS. If the majority leader will yield, that wasn't precisely my question. The overall question is--and there are quite a number of judges pending, and more should be moved out of committee if there is not a blockage going on. Are we going to reach--is it the majority leader's intention to reach the average as we thought an understanding existed to do?
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I try to be a very patient man. I know my friend, whom I complimented publicly on the floor, didn't mean what he said this morning about me.
I am sure if that were brought to his attention, he would ask that to be taken from the Record because it is in violation of the rules; basically, that I was clueless. I am sure he did not mean that, but that is what he said. And people said it is a violation of rule XIX.
I say first to my friend from Alabama, he said that. Was it something he did not really mean, that I was clueless? Because that is an insult. I would ask my friend, did you really mean that I was clueless?
Mr. SESSIONS. If I was violating a rule or saying anything to insult the majority leader, I would apologize because I do respect the majority leader. He always treated me fairly, as I think he does most people in the Senate. I think he is so recognized.
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