Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Confirming Monica Bertagnolli As NIH Director And The Senate Hitting New Milestones In Confirming President Biden’s Judicial Nominees

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on continuing to confirm President Biden’s diverse and well-qualified nominees, including a historic 100 women confirmed to serve on the federal bench. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today is going to be a very important and good day on the Senate floor.

This morning, we’ll confirm Monica Bertagnolli as the next Director of the NIH, the National Institutes of Health.

And later today, the Senate will hit a new milestone in our record of confirming President Biden’s diverse, well-qualified judicial nominees when we confirm two more District Judges: Kenly Kato to serve in the Central District of California and Julia Kobick to serve in the District of Massachusetts.

With the confirmations today, the Senate will hit two exciting milestones: one hundred fifty total judges confirmed under President Biden and one hundred female judges confirmed under President Biden. Two-thirds of the judges we have confirmed are women, redressing an imbalance that existed for centuries.

We have one hundred fifty judges now who have brought integrity and impartiality to the bench.

We have one hundred fifty judges who have expanded the diversity and dynamism of our courts.

We have one hundred fifty judges who are restoring America’s trust in the federal judiciary.

And then finally, after that, we’ll advance the nomination of Ramon Reyes to be a District Judge in the Eastern District of New York, setting up his confirmation tomorrow. And last night, we filed cloture on additional judicial nominees.

I am extremely proud of the work we have done to confirm these one hundred fifty judges – including one hundred women – to the federal bench.

And let me put that in perspective: as of tonight, this Senate will have confirmed one hundred women to the federal bench – nearly double that of President Trump’s entire first term and more than the full first term of any recent president.

These nominees are all historic taken together, and many are historic in their own right: we confirmed the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, the first Muslim woman to the federal bench, and much more.

This Senate has now confirmed more women of color to the bench than any Senate under any previous President.

And we aren’t done, we aren’t done. We’ll continue to advance judicial nominations on the floor this Congress.

I thank my colleagues for their cooperation.

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