Business Meeting on Court Coverage, Likeness IP, and Nominations

morning everybody um the situation is this we're starting at nine o'clock because there's a commerce committee meeting that's very important at ten o'clock uh and all the republicans can't be here until nine thirty so we uh only have a window of nine thirty to ten o'clock to get our uh through our nominations uh we have three important bills on the committee uh i'll try to work them in if we get a quorum work them in before we do the nominations but you know we haven't met for uh three weeks because we've had attendance problems And there's a lot of work for this committee to do. And uh and I uh when I say there's uh attendance problems, that's been more of a problem on my side of the aisle than it has been on the democrat side of the aisle. Uh today's the we have eight nominations and three bills. Uh two circuit court nominees, Benjamin Flowers sixth circuit matthew schwartz second circuit we'll vote on four district court nominees michael hendershot northern district ohio arthur jones southern district texas jeffrey kuntz southern district florida john mark southern district texas and then we'll also vote on don berthoud to be inspector general of the justice department and sean costello to serve as us attorney for the southern district of alabama uh three bills sunshine in the courtroom cameras in the courtroom act and the no fakes act uh six judicial nominees on today's agenda i feel are highly qualified they each have strong credentials a long-standing commitment to the rule of law they're going to make fine federal judges our other nominees are exceptional as well i encourage my colleagues to join me in voting uh we're also voting on two bills which i in ranking member durbin introduce this congress uh they uh i won't go into detail about it but it means uh cameras in the courtroom our third uh bill no fakes is the result of a lot of hard work by senator blackburn and senator coons and uh uh senator coons and blackburn have been on me for a long time to get this bill on the agenda so i'm uh they they'd like to move that today as well uh it's all about protecting individuals from the exploitation by others using ai generated digital replicas of themselves uh as i said at last week's hearing senators tell me they want to retain the blue slip practice and obviously i agree with that but very often these senators Conduct is destructive of the very institution they claim they wanna protect. The practice of becoming more. Untenable as senators fail to work with the white house. In good faith to secure district courts and US attorneys. This week president trump announced that he wouldn't proceed with the new. Uh director of intelligence or approval of physis. Until he gets the US attorneys in the southern. new york and i'd suggest to president trump that he ought to be working with senator thun on the agenda for the united states senate instead of uh standing in the way for more than a year senator schumer refused to return a blue slip or consider the highly qualified nominee that the president puts forth senator schumer has also refused to consider any nominee for other us attorney or district court seats in In fact, Senator Schumer refused to even meet with the administration to find a path forward. He's never responded to their proposals or negotiated any of these uh vacancies. Uh, this is uh not sustainable. I don't think it's in good faith. Democrats expect Republicans to adhere to the president and norms while at the same time it seems to me uh undermining them in the process um during the first trump and biden administration senators from opposing parties returned hundreds of blue slips for district court and us attorney nominees but during the second term of trump they've been few and far between and let's not forget that for the first time in recorded history senate democrats still haven't allowed a single civilian nominee to be confirmed by voice votes and unanimous consents in doing so they wasted valuable floor time that could have been addressed um with legislating meeting the needs of the american people i uh know some of my colleagues including some on this committee have worked with the white house in good faith to fill vacancies i know some others have tried and i thank those who have engaged in good faith and urge them to continue their efforts and particularly urge colleagues of their caucus to do the same thing if i can be helpful and to resolve an impasse i would be happy to work in that direction our senate practices and norms will only survive if there's good faith on all sides i'm urging all colleagues in the senate to put an end to the obstruction If the blue-slip practice is going to continue, and it's going to continue as long as I'm chairman, and so many of my colleagues have also insisted that, Senate Democrats must stop bad faith obstructions, and I hope they can do it right now, Senator Whitehouse.

Thanks very much, uh, Chairman. I'm in this, uh, seat, this morning, because, um, Illinois Senator Durbin uh was a close friend of Illinois Senator Obama and then US President Obama. And today, in a star-studded celebration, the Obama Presidential Library is going to open. And uh, Senator Durbin very, very much wanted to be there. I think he is exactly where he should be. Um, and that leaves me to uh fill in for him today. I'd like to take my time this morning to suggest that combining our oversight hearing of the Department of Justice with the nominations hearing for uh Acting Attorney General Blanch would be a grave mistake for the committee. I don't believe we did that with Attorney General Garland. And I think the record of the Department of Justice, uh, under Todd Blanch, lends itself to very vigorous oversight. Oversight which we have been denied because when we ask questions, we get scripted litanies of insult and quarrel rather than actual answers to our questions when we ask for documents and records in writing, we get nothing, uh we are reduced to filing FOIA requests that are then not even complied with as FOIA requests. So, the oversight function of this committee is really, I think, being systematically disabled. That's particularly significant when you have Attorney General Bondi saying that it was uh Todd Blanch who was responsible for the Epstein files disaster, the releases of private information and images of victims, the cover-up of documents that named Donald Trump, and just the general incompetence of the whole wretched mess. I don't think that it would be a good idea for this committee to be complicit in covering up the cover-up of the Epstein files. Move on to the slush fund, which a great number of my Republican colleagues have expressed real reservations about, with its attachment of a tax amnesty deal for Trump, the Trump family, and the Trump businesses. There are very legitimate questions to be asked about that, including has that cockamamie idea really been withdrawn? Or is it just being hidden briefly so it can resurface in some other fashion? We should be looking into this as a committee. It's important stuff. And even if we shirk our duties at looking into all of this, it appears that a Florida court is gonna be looking into all of this. And I think it's a bad look for the committee to be turning a blind eye to what went into the slush fund deal and the tax amnesty deal, and then discover, through a court proceeding in Florida, all the stuff that we failed to look at. It's hard to be taken seriously if we have failed to do our own duty, and then the court proceedings reveal the mischief. I will say that I've looked, I have never, ever heard of senior officials of the Department of Justice being called before a court with respect to a fraud upon the court. Look up fraud upon a court. It's a pretty serious charge. This one was brought, raised, I guess I should say, by thirty-six, three dozen retired federal judges, some very, very respected ones, some very, very conservative ones. And the judge in the proceeding in Florida, out of which the slush fund settlement emerged, reopened the case to have a look. She asked for responses. She suggested that the DOJ might have violated its own policies in the settlement. She suggested that there was an IRS defense memo out there that would be relevant to the proceedings. The violation of DOJ policies would obviously be a matter for DOJ to answer. The IRS client memo would obviously be something for DOJ to answer. She also questioned whether there was collusion. It takes two to collude. It would be a collusion between the Department of Justice lawyers and Trump's private lawyers. So there's another reason for the Department of Justice to have responded. What happened last Friday? No response from the Department of Justice. first ever accusation of senior level Department of Justice people of fraud upon the court, with an invitation to rebut the allegations, an invitation specific to Department of Justice conduct. And they duck. So that is going to continue. The three dozen judges have their answer this Friday and then the court will go forward. I will contend that we don't look like much. if that information is being developed in a federal courtroom, and we haven't been allowed to ask questions, and indeed our oversight has been collapsed into a confirmation hearing. I have never seen a Department of Justice as badly run as this one. I've never seen fraught upon the court allegations, I've never seen so many suggestions of contempt. I've never seen so many no true bills. I've never seen so many cases thrown out. I've never seen so many accusations. that department arguments were false, were pretextual, were designed to fool rather than inform the court. And we see that over and over again from judges appointed by every president. It is now at the point where the Department of Justice and the US government have lost their presumption of regularity in federal court proceedings. All of this matters. All of this is something to which this committee should be paying attention. And with respect to what our Chairman has said about the norms of the committee, well, one norm is that US attorneys come through this committee after a process of consultation before they get to run US Attorney's Office. Over and over again, we see these slippery deals, where acting US attorneys are appointed, and then The first assistant is fired, and when the time runs out on the acting, uh, US attorney, they slip back into the first attorney position, and leave a vacancy. It's an obvious scam to get around this committee's norms. And we have put up with this. It didn't happen once, it didn't happen twice, it has happened over and over and over and over again. And on top of that, we've seen US attorneys called out for misconduct over and over and over again. None of this is normal. None of this is normal. And the fact that this committee won't look into it, I think, is a shame. And I think if we try to be complicit in failing in our duty to look into this by combining the Blanch nomination hearing with the Department of Justice oversight hearing, we will have made a very, very grave mistake. Thank you, Chairman.

i'm i'm only gonna respond to the process question you brought up not the other issues you brought up but i'd like to remind you that you mentioned garland as attorney general there were eight months between his nomination and the first uh hearing you gotta realize that there's only four weeks we meet in july there's two weeks we meet in september that's six weeks between now and the election you gotta realize and i'm not running the senate so i do don't determine the calendar of the senate but we basically only have three days a week so that's eighteen days between now and the election and uh that's why we have to combine the oversight with the others and we're going accommodate it by giving members on your side all the time you need to ask questions uh we're negotiating that now and we'll try to accommodate you as much as we can but with only eighteen days you can see that we can have eight months between the nomination and and the confirmation or the uh oversight hearing

well i know that the uh chairman is um sympathetic to the oversight problems that we face here and the degree to which this department's behavior is exceptional and um i look forward to um having those hearings go forward in a way that reflects uh the chairman's consistent desires for real oversight and i hope that the uh proceedings reflect

you

uh that

know when i came to the united states and we started ten o'clock on monday morning and we went till four on friday now it seems to me both republicans and democrats like a three day work week there's plenty of problems for uh or there's plenty of work for an individual senator to do seven days a week if they wanna work seven days a week but you can't solve this country's problems if you don't get a a hundred of us together at one time and that's whether you got a a democrat majority or a republican majority that's the way it's been we gotta put in more time here in washington d. c. meeting if you wanna do what you wanna do

no objection to those thoughts

ok uh hey i think we better go to your bill uh eh while we're waiting for a majority i uh we're gonna we're gonna take up the stuff that i've got most pressure to work on coons and and so we're gonna go ahead with her bill let me uh let me start out that before you do the next bill is s forty five ninety one

essentially

no fakes

no fakes

this bill is led by senator coons and senator blackburn i understand there is a manager's amendment i'll now call up the manager's amendment number ehf two six five two eight

what was that

without objection it will be adopted i hear no objection if there eh if there is any of the bill sponsors would like to speak uh Do it quickly.

Yes.

Senator Kulbos.

This is my speaker. Thank you, Mister Chairman, and um thank you to Senator Blackburn, I'm deeply grateful uh to Senators uh Blackburn uh and Tillis uh and Klobuchar, uh to Senator Blackburn and her staff for a strong partnership at every step. We have had so many negotiating sessions, stakeholder meetings, uh red line conversations, literally dozens of them. Um, and I'm grateful for the support this bill has from many colleagues on this committee, ranking member Durbin, Senators Blumenthal, Britt, Hirono, Moody, Welch, and Schiff as cosponsors. This bill's about protecting what's most personal to us, what makes us us, our voice and our likeness. Every American should have the right to decide how their voice and likeness will be used, especially when generative AI can create highly realistic digital replicas that make it look like we said things we never said. and did things we never did. No Fakes gives every American a new intellectual property right to control their digital replica, to license it as they wish, to allow their families to protect it after they pass, and to stop unauthorized replicas from proliferating online. This bill creates a workable notice and take down system so we can enforce this right. If online platforms take down unauthorized deepfakes, everyone wins. If online, if they don't, the online platforms are exposed to financial penalties. The bill also reigns in the use of AI models that exist largely to create unauthorized deepfakes. I want to be clear, nofakes includes features that protect free speech, parody, satire, documentaries, biopics, newscasts, they're all protected, and we built inappropriate counter-notification processes in exempted research libraries and archives. This important bipartisan bill is the product of real compromise between stakeholders on all sides. It has enthusiastic support from across the movie, music and television industries, from online platforms, from YouTube to TikTok, from AI companies like OpenAI and IBM, from organized labor and child safety groups. Mister Chairman, I'd like to submit for the record supportive quotes from forty different organizations who often don't see eye to eye on much of anything, all supporting this bill.

Without objection, so ordered.

And if I could conclude, um, did everyone get what they wanted? No. But we did work to build support and it would not have happened without my Chief Counsel, James Barton, who was tireless, engaged and effective, and with the real partnership with my Republican co-leads. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator Blackboard.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I am so pleased we are finally moving forward with the No Fakes Act. And as Senator Coons has said, this has been a bipartisan effort and lot of work has gone into it. And it is imperative that we put this national standard in place for voice and visual likeness protection of creators.

Mm-hmm.

Every American needs this to protect from proliferation of harmful AI-generated deepfakes that are created without their consent. From artists and songwriters to students and everyday citizens, our nation deserves meaningful protections against Our bill would establish clear guardrails that protect our creators in Tennessee and indeed nationwide in addition to establishing a federal intellectual property right in every American's voice and visual likeness we also provide a clear notice and take down framework as well as safe harbor provisions for companies that comply. These provisions ensure that when a platform receives a proper notice of a deepfake, that platform must promptly remove or disable access to that harmful content. If they promptly remove the content, they won't face liability under the bill. We've included explicit First Amendment protections in this bill. For example, we have excluded commentary, criticism, scholarship, satire and parody content from being removed, as well as news and sports broadcast material. Additionally, Senator Coons and I and our teams have worked for months with some of our key stakeholders to come up with this compromise manager's amendment that will be advancing this morning what came out of those negotiations was a counter-notice framework I believe has made the bill stronger under the new provision, someone who believes a platform took down their content inappropriately, for example, if the content was not actually a deepfake, or if it was First Amendment protected, can have their content placed back online. Both the creative community and the platforms had to make compromises. I believe it's a stronger bill. in the end. I've always said that America needs one set of rules for AI, and no fakes is a critical component of that rule book. Every American has an article one, section eight, clause eight, constitutional right to benefit from their creative works. And the No Fakes Act allows for just that in the age of AI. I want to thank Senator Coons and his team for their partnership on the effort, as well as the bipartisan coalition of cosponsors. We've assembled a robust group of outside supporters, and, Mister Chairman, I have letters to submit for the record from the Creative Artist Agency, the Broadcasters Association of all fifty states, the Human Artistry Campaign, the American Medical Association, and an open letter of support from SAG-AFTRA, signed by over sixteen thousand individuals. I look forward to a very strong bipartisan voice vote in advancing this legislation.

Before

Thank you, Mister Chairman.

Before I call on Senator Lee, uh, I would like to get this bill done, but just as soon as we get all the people here, we're gonna stop for nominations.

Uh, so really Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Um,

Thanks, Senator.

I wanna thank Senator Blackburn and Senator Coons for their uh leadership on this, and um uh the this is an important issue. Uh, a person's voice and likeness are uh both valuable assets. Artists, uh performers, content creators of um of every sort have legitimate interests. Um, uh financial interests, reputational interests, in controlling how those assets, things that belong to them are used. And they deserve protection against theft, against fraud and unauthorized use. Uh, uh, e- e- especially, uh, the, the type of commercial exploitation that can happen, uh, can be really problematic.

Right.

Now, the legislation as drafted now, uh, raises some potentially significant concerns regarding free speech. We do need to ensure that in protecting uh, in protecting content, content creators' rights, that we don't inadvertently chill free speech or undermine long-standing uh, first amendment principles. So I, uh, my plan is to support the bill today, uh, and uh, look forward to working with Senator Blackburn, uh, to address these concerns before they hit the floor. They do need to be addressed, but I'm happy to, uh, move it out of committee today and support it in that process with that understanding. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks, Senator Blackburn.

Senator Polingar. Well, thank you very much, uh, Mister Chairman. And, uh, Senator Tillis and I, uh, worked together with the leaders of this bill, uh, Senator Coons and Senator Blackburn, and I want to thank them, uh, from the very beginning. This builds on, uh, some of the work that Senator Cruz and I did on the Take It Down Act, which is now signed into law, and the provision requiring the platforms to take down non-consensual images in forty-eight hours, is now actually in effect uh as well as the increased penalties for the people that uh post uh the illegal uh images and i think this is a huge step forward and a model that we should be using uh for in many contexts and while this law that we did before the no fakes act focused on the non consensual um images um and puts the rules of the road to give people control over digital replicas of their voice and likeness this goes to something that we know has been a real real problem it's important we pass this bill because it is easier than ever to use ai tools to generate everything from images and videos songs recordings and even senate hearings in fact um senator blackburn and i held a hearing on privacy that was actually a great subcommittee hearing we walked out of there thinking this is so good maybe we can find a compromise on this". And a day later I saw an image of myself, and I thought, " Oh wow, I could this thing is getting so much attention". It was me and she was sitting next to me and my staff was behind me, and it was actually an AI image. Now that might have been considered parody. I didn't think it was very funny with what they said. Uh, they somehow put me in the middle of this Sidney Sweeney jeans campaign issue. Uh, but it was startling as I looked at my feed and finally the, um, platforms either took it down or put digitally altered on it a number of people believed it they believed i'd used language that i would never use in this hearing room uh they believed i said things that i would never say and to me it was an example of how quickly these things can go viral um so what happened here and by the way if it is parody i believe it should i have another piece of legislation that says that it should say digitally altered so technology led to incredible things last year we did an event the four of us with randy travis who lost his ability to sing um after having a stroke and using ai replicas of his own voice he's been able to continue putting out music but that's because it's his voice it's his decision easy access to this technology has created real challenges that harm real people sony music has identified more than one hundred thirty five thousand songs with unauthorized deepfakes and streaming services so so much of what our country is based on and our innovation and our economy is based on ideas innovation people's intellectual products their own creations and if we mess around with this with ai and don't reward them for that we're gonna mess around with our entire economy it isn't just artists consumers lost more than three point five billion dollars through imposter schemes and so that's why this bill is so important everyone should have the right to privacy and the right to control their own voice and their own likeness and i'll just end by thanking the consumer artists entertainment labor tech stakeholders uh that have come together to support this bill you must know something's going right senator blackburn when you can announce that you have the american medical association and sag actor supporting the same bill it's just a usually these interests don't align on something, it's not like they're opposed, but it just shows the broad coalition that supports doing something about this challenging and growing problem. Thank you.

Before Senator Padilla and then Senator Cruz, uh in if we get if we get everybody here on our side, we're going to I'm going to stop you in the middle of your speeches. Go ahead, Senator.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, I want to begin by thanking Senator Coons, Senator Blackburn, and the many stakeholders who've worked so collaboratively to bring the no fakes act to this point uh receiving a mark up the problem of unauthorized deep fakes that mislead defraud or otherwise harm both the individuals depicted as well as the public is urgent and demands a swift congressional response i'm grateful for the hard work that everyone involved has put into this effort uh the bill before us today has substantively and substantially improved and i think reflects the care that the sponsors have taken to address

yes yeah they have the knowledge

the a number of concerns regarding the implementation innovation and free expression online

ok

there are still some issues that want additional attention to ensure that the obligations placed on the diverse stakeholders in our communications ecosystem including music streaming services video game developers user generated content platforms of all sizes and others uh ensuring that those are appropriately tailored and designed to achieve the build's goals effectively but because the process has been so collaborative so constructive and has been done in such good faith i'm confident that we can continue working together to refine these provisions and ensure that the final legislation effectively combats harmful deepfakes while protecting innovation and free expression i look forward to supporting

this measuring committee here today.

Will now turn to the nomination of a Benjamin Flowers to serve as Circuit Judge for the US Circuit Court, sixth district. So, speak.

Thank you, Chairman. Um, this is an extraordinarily ill-motivated, uh, candidate for the judiciary

Yep.

who has expressly said it's not his intention to follow the law, but rather to impose his view of what he calls traditional Western values. He has derided textualism and indeed said a court that correctly decides cases on narrow grounds without upsetting long set, but badly flawed precedents will not be much use. That is unacceptable for the conservative movement of today. In his own words, he will use his seat on the bench to impose tradi- his view of traditional Western values, to press for the conservative movement of today and will avoid, and indeed seems to mock the notion of correctly deciding cases on narrow grounds. Textualism and minimalism used to be conservative values. This does not provide that.

The clerk will call the roll on flowers.

Mister Brand. Aye. Mister Gordon. Aye. Mister Lee. Aye. Mister Prud. Mister Paulie. Aye. Mister Tillis. Misses Blackburn.

Aye.

Uh, Durbin, no by proxy.

Mister Whitehouse.

No.

Miss Klobuchar.

No.

Mister Kootz.

No.

Mister Blumenthal.

No by proxy.

Miss Hirono.

No by proxy.

Mister Booker.

No by proxy.

mr. pagilla

no

mr. welch

no

mr. schiff

no by proxy

sherry grassley

uh i

ok

a miss vote be either twelve then eight or ten

the nomination will be favorably reported

receive

now matthew schwartz so can see if schiff wants to vote in person oh hey uh senator schiff senator schiff you wanna be voted in person uh yes please uh senator Uh.

Please record Senator Schiff as a no vote in person,

Sure, we'll Yeah.

not by proxy.

Yeah. Uh, now we go to Matthew Schwartz, unfavorably reporting the nomination. Clerk will call the roll.

Oh, Mister Chairman,

Yes.

I just want to flag for my colleagues that uh this individual represents President Trump personally in his appeal of the thirty-four felony convictions for falsifying business records related to his payments to stormy Daniels. and also in the four hundred and sixty four million dollar judgment against trump and his family members in his business for inflated value of business assets the president still owes the firm four hundred thousand dollars evidently and notwithstanding the chairman's comments earlier about following norms no blue slip from either of the new york senators i urge a no vote

the call the clerk will call the roll on shorts

mr. brand aye is recorded aye mister lee

aye

mister fruze

aye

mister holly mister tillis

aye aye

this is blackbird mister schmidt

aye

this is bryd

yeah oh oh

this is toby

aye oh yeah

mister jermyn

oh

uh no my proxy

mister whitehouse

no

this is klobuchar

no

mister fruze

no

mr. plumenthal

no by proxy

mr. runoff

no by proxy

mr. booker

no by proxy

mr. biggier

no

mr. wells

no

jerry grassey

aye

i'm miss sophie i'm your twelve the name depends

schwartz will be favorably reported to the floor now hinder michael hendershot

yeah

uh northern district of ohio the clerk will call the roll

mister brand

aye

mister cornan

aye

mister lee

aye

mister cruz

aye

mister holly

aye

mister tillis

aye

mister kennedy

hmm aye

missus blackburn

aye

mister schmidt

aye

missus gritt missus moody mister derby

no by proxy

mister whitehouse

no

miss klobuchar

no

mister cruz

no

mister klinthof

No by proxy.

Mr. Roanoke.

No by proxy.

Mr. Booker.

No by proxy.

Mr. Medeia.

No.

Mr. Welch.

No.

Mr. Schiff.

No.

Jim Ingrassi. I'm just voting either twelve or eight or ten.

Nomination be favorably reported. Now Arthur Jones, District uh Southern District, Texas, towards recall the role.

Mr. Graham.

Aye.

Mr. Cornyn. Mr. Lee.

Aye.

Mister Cruz.

Aye.

Mister Hawley.

Aye.

Mister Tillis.

Aye.

Mister Kennedy.

Aye.

Missus Blackburn.

Aye.

Mister Smith.

Aye.

Missus Frick.

Aye.

Mister Durbin.

No, by proxy.

Mister Whitehouse.

No.

Mister Kloosgaard.

No.

Mister Kloons.

No.

Mister Kloonenthal.

No, by proxy.

Mister Runnell.

No.

No, by proxy.

Mister Booker.

No, by proxy.

Mister Padilla.

No.

mr. welsh

no

mr. schimm

no

chairman of the faculty

no

aye

i'm gonna go with the either twelve and eight or ten

arthur jones will be favorably reported now we go to jeffrey coons southern district florida to call the roll

mr. brandt

aye

mr. cornish

aye

mr. lee

i'm

mr. cruz

i

mr. collins

you go carly

mr. tillis

i

mr. kennedy

i

mrs. blackburn

Uh, what?

Mrs. Grimm. Mrs. Moody. Mister Durbin.

No by proxy.

Mister Whitehouse.

No.

Mister Clement guard.

No.

Mister Gouds.

No.

Mister Clement off.

No by proxy.

Mister Runoff.

No by proxy.

Mister Booker.

No by proxy.

Mister Gavilla.

No.

Mister Welch.

No.

Mister Schiff.

No.

Chairman Graskin. um there's no c i's are twelve and the a's are ten

jeffrey coons will be favorably reported now john mark southern district texas the talk or call role

mister grant

aye

mister cornyn

aye

mister lee

aye

mister cruz

aye

mister holly

eric

mister phyllis

eric aye

mister kennedy

aye

missus blackburn mr. schmidt

aye

missus bryant

aye

missus nooky

eric

mister durbin

no by proxy

mister whitehouse

no

mr. plumbert

no

mister kud

no

mister blumenthal

doesn't doesn't make sense

uh no by proxy

mister ronald

no by proxy

mister booker

no by proxy

mr. medea

no of course not

mr. welch

that one's very dead to me

mr. shin jerry bradford

i

i'm miss sophie i'm twelve and eight or ten

john mark will be favorably reported now don bear schum uh to be inspector general of the justice department senator whitehouse

i'm likely to be the only democrat voting aye on this nominee but he does have a record of uh integrity as an inspector general uh integrity is a quality sorely lacking in this department of justice and while i may uh find that i should be very disappointed in my vote here i will be voting yes uh on this individual

circle call the roll

mister brand

aye

mister cornan aye mister lee aye mister cruz aye mister holly aye mister holly aye alright mister tillis aye mister kennedy i'm a white ass missus lebron mister smith uh missus briggs missus moody mister jervin

no by proxy

mister whitehouse

aye

mr. pelmitar no mr. coons no mr. blumenthal no mr. runoff

i by proxy

mr. booker

no by proxy

mr. sofia no mr. welch no mr. schiff no jerry mangraski

alright

on this folks the i's are fourteen and the a's are nine

don berthum will be reported now sean costello a US Attorney, Southern District, Alabama.

Mister Chairman, may I say a few words?

Yes.

Uh, thank you very much. I just wanted to say a few words in support of Sean Costello's nomination to be US Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. Uh, l- look, he has been serving this district for over twenty years. During that time he's rose through the ranks as the Chief of the Criminal Division in twenty eighteen and he's been serving as the interim US Attorney since twenty twenty one. Prior to his time in office, he served for several years here at Maine Justice um in DC. He was also a legislative aide to both senators, uh, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he has tried twenty-eight cases to final verdict and has pursued cases on a wide range of criminal conduct, including child exploitation, national security, terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and corporate fraud. Sean has devoted his entire

Mr. Gallaroy.

Mr. Graham.

Aye.

Mr. Hornet.

Aye.

Mr. Lee.

Aye.

Mr. Cruz.

Aye.

Mr. Hawley.

Aye.

Mr. Tillis.

Aye.

Mr. Kennedy.

Aye. Aye.

Mrs. Blackburn.

Aye.

Mr. Schmidt.