Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Continuing To Confirm Critical Biden Nominations

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding votes to advance and confirm a number of President Biden’s diverse judicial nominees and administration officials. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

We have a busy day in store for the Senate as we aim to hold a number of important votes before the start of Yom Kippur.

Today, we will vote to advance four Presidential nominations.

First, we will confirm James Kvaal to be Undersecretary of Education, and we will also confirm both David Estudillo and Angel Kelley to serve as District Judges in Washington and Massachusetts, respectively.

This afternoon, we will also advance the nomination of Ms. Veronica Rossman of Colorado, who has been nominated by President Biden to sit on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ms. Rossman has spent practically her entire legal career in public service as a federal defender, giving a voice in the courtroom to those who often cannot afford legal representation.

She is also an immigrant, who fled Russia with her parents as a child after her family endured anti-Semitic persecution in their home country. She understands, personally, the damage faced by those who endure discrimination.

If confirmed, Ms. Rossman would be the only federal defender to sit on the Tenth Circuit, and one of the few in the entire country. I am proud to have nominated Eunice Lee to the Second Circuit in New York where she now sits. She, too, has been a federal defender.

We also have plenty of prosecutors and corporate lawyers wearing black robes. Like so many other of President Biden’s judicial nominees, Ms. Rossman would bring a sorely-needed perspective to our courts.

The more we work to make our courts reflective of the diversity of this country, both demographic and professional, the more we will strengthen the public’s trust in our judicial system.  

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