Prepared Opening Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Executive Business Meeting
Thursday, September 11, 2025

Good morning. Before we begin, I want to take a moment to reflect. Today is the 24th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks on our country. I think it’s fitting, before we engage in debate on our political disagreements of the day, to remember the tragedy and to recall how it united us as Americans in our resolve against those who would inflict violence against us for political ends.

Tragically, we have another reason to reflect on this same topic. Yesterday, Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University. I’m praying for Charlie and his family. Although we don’t know all the details about the shooting or the motive, it’s a horrible reminder that acts of political terrorism and violence are something that we must resolve to oppose every day.

On today’s agenda, we’ve listed the nominations of Joshua Dunlap and Eric Tung to be circuit judges, William Mercer and Stephen Chad Meredith to be district judges, and the nominations of 18 individuals to be United States Attorneys. We’ll hold over the nomination of Scott Leary to be United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi and will consider him at a later date.

The nominees we’re considering today are well-qualified for their roles, and I look forward to supporting them all. I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

Before we turn to the agenda, I’d like to address the ongoing obstruction of the executive branch orchestrated by Senate Democratic leadership.

Historically, the consideration of U.S. Attorneys has been a routine and bipartisan exercise, both in Committee and on the Senate floor. These men and women have answered the call to public service and are needed to uphold public safety in their communities. U.S. Attorneys have nearly always been voted out of Committee by voice vote and then confirmed by voice vote or unanimous consent on the floor.

During the last Administration, 94% of President Biden’s U.S. Attorney nominees were confirmed by voice vote on the Senate floor. But so far, not a single U.S. Attorney has been confirmed on the Senate floor by voice.

In fact, the Democrats haven’t allowed a single voice vote on the floor for any civilian nominee this Congress.

The obstruction of U.S. Attorneys hurts public safety. As I’ve said several times on the Senate floor, 81% of Americans think that crime in large cities is a major concern. We have only to look at tragedies from the last few days to understand why Americans are concerned about crime in our cities. The murder of Charlie Kirk yesterday. The school shooting in Colorado yesterday. The recent mass shooting of little children at a Catholic church in Minnesota. Or the senseless murder of a young woman on a train in Charlotte.

We, as elected leaders, have a responsibility to do something about this. And we can do something about it, by installing federal law enforcement officers to keep people safe. Unfortunately, Senate Democrats won’t let us.

Senate Democrats cannot accept that President Trump won the election, and have chosen to light the Senate and its traditions on fire in a campaign of partisan outrage.

For months, I’ve begged my colleagues to put the safety of American communities over partisan obstruction. I’ve warned of the lasting damage their strategy will cause to the Senate as an institution, and to our constitutional advice and consent role. I’ve gone to the Senate floor multiple times to implore my Democratic colleagues to relent from this destructive path.

My appeals have fallen on deaf ears. The obstruction of U.S. Attorneys is just one piece of a broader strategy orchestrated by Democratic leadership to grind the Senate to a halt. This only hurts the American people.

And now, this unprecedented obstruction is impacting the operation of our Committee.

For at least 75 years—and probably much longer—the Senate Judiciary Committee has reported many of our nominees by voice vote. This is an efficient, cooperative way to process nominations and is generally appreciated by both the Majority and Minority party.

Under my Chairmanship this Congress, we have only taken voice votes with the explicit consent of the Ranking Member, and never when an objection has been raised.

So when I recently heard that some of our non-controversial U.S. Attorney nominees who were reported by voice might be challenged, I made a simple request. I went to the floor and asked my colleagues to honor the validity of our voice votes and our longstanding, bipartisan practice.

I was sincerely disappointed when Senator Schumer objected to my request and ruined this longstanding tradition. This was nothing more than an act of destructive partisanship. Because of his decision—like so many of his other decisions since 2003—another Senate norm has been broken, and today we are forced to vote again on 10 U.S. Attorneys that we’ve already voted on.

This pattern of unrelenting partisan obstruction needs to end. We tried to end it by negotiation, but now we must end it by rule change. The American people deserve a functioning executive branch. They deserve Senate-confirmed law enforcement officers. They deserve a functioning Senate. If Leader Schumer and the Democrats won’t agree to give that to the American people, then we will force them to.

As a final note, I’ll say that the Ranking Member and I have a good relationship, despite our differences. I appreciate that we try to work together where we can, and that we respectfully disagree when we can’t. I’m disappointed that our cooperation in the management of this Committee, as the Chairman and Ranking Member, wasn’t respected by Senator Schumer.

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