Floor Statements

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons) Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen), are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fetterman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Manchin), the Senator from Vermont (Mr. Sanders), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. Sinema), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Tester), and the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) are necessarily absent.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) is necessarily absent.

I announce that the Senator from Maryland (Mr. Cardin) is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, when many people think of Chicago, they think of Irish culture. Chicago's Irish American community is a thriving, invaluable part of the city. And no person represented the rich marriage of cultures more than my friend Billy Lawless. So, it is with great sadness that I share the news of his passing.

Though Billy's path would later take him to Illinois, much of his life was spent in Ireland. A native of Galway, Billy grew up in a family that owned pubs and a hotel, instilling in him a passion for the hospitality industry

from a young age. He long harbored dreams of opening a restaurant in the United States, but it was not until 1998--on the heels of his daughter earning a rowing scholarship at Boston University--that Billy made this dream a reality. He and his family moved to Chicago, and Billy soon fell deeply in love with the city, a love affair that would last until his final days.

In Chicago, Billy combined his love for the restaurant industry with his love for Ireland, opening the bar, the Irish Oak, in the Wrigleyville neighborhood. In the wake of the bar's success, he opened several other bars and restaurants across the city, establishing himself as a mainstay of Chicago culture and eventually creating the Gage Hospitality Group. But what made Billy special was that he channeled his business power into political power, using his growing success to give back to both Chicago and America's Irish communities.

Namely, Billy became a fierce advocate for undocumented Irish immigrants and a staunch proponent of immigration reform. In pursuit of these ends, he was a board member and cofounder of the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition, chair of the Chicago Celts for Immigration Reform, and he was a leader of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights. In short, he was a tireless champion of the Irish diaspora in the United States. It was over the matter of immigration reform--a matter to which I have devoted a large portion of my policy efforts over my career in public office--that Billy and I bonded. His work on immigrant and refugee rights in Chicago was invaluable. We all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Even from across the Atlantic Ocean, his commitment to the Irish people remained steadfast. And this did not go unnoticed. In 2015, Billy joined the ranks of those such as President John F. Kennedy when he was made a Freeman of Galway, an honorary title given to valued members of the community. In 2016, then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny nominated Billy to the Seanad, the Irish Senate, where he served one term as a member of the Seanad Independent Group. In this role, he served as an overseas Irish Senator for the Irish diaspora, the first person ever to hold that title. In that role, he gave voice to the hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women living in the U.S. and across the world.

In a lot of ways, Billy represents the American dream. He came to this country with hope for prosperity. And he quickly found it. But, despite his success, he never forgot where he came from. To the contrary--it was his love for Ireland, his passion for the rights of immigrants and refugees, and his commitment to making sure America lived up to its ideals that motivated him to give back to both of the countries he considered home. He was a businessman of integrity, a political force to be reckoned with, and most importantly, a genuinely good man. In asking how he could use his position to give back, he made our Nation better.

My wife Loretta and I send our deepest condolences to Billy's wife Anne; his four children Amy, Clodagh, Billy Jr., and John Paul; and his eight grandchildren on their tremendous loss. Billy was a lot of things. But he took most pride in being a loving husband, father, and grandfather.

Though we will no longer get to feel the warmth of his embrace, and though we will certainly feel the pain of his loss, Billy's remarkable legacy will live on across oceans--in pints of beer and the fight for immigration reform alike. We will miss him dearly.

Mr. President, in the Jewish faith, there is a central concept known as ``tikkun olam.'' Literally translated, it means ``world repair,'' and it has come to represent many Jewish individuals' commitment to bettering the world around them. While I do not practice Judaism, I share this idea that each of us has a role to play in bettering our communities. And Nancy Sage has done just that in my hometown of Springfield, IL.

Executive director of the Springfield Jewish Federation for nearly a decade, Nancy has strengthened the Jewish community and improved the lives of countless people in Springfield. Prior to taking this role, Nancy had served as a volunteer for the National Jewish Federation Board. When Nancy was approached to apply for the position of executive director, she knew she could not pass up the opportunity to give back to two communities she cared deeply about: the Springfield community and the Jewish community.

In her role, she has created partnerships between the Jewish community and other religious and racial groups to address challenges such as interfaith harmony and food insecurity. An example of her leadership can be found in her work to educate her community about Julius Rosenwald as part of Springfield's Rosenwald Initiative, which brought together the Jewish and Black communities to honor the life of Springfield-born philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and his work to educate African-Americans in the rural South.

But her work has reached beyond Springfield and benefited communities across the country and world--Jewish and non-Jewish, alike. Under her leadership, the Jewish Federation of Springfield's Annual Campaign successfully raised money for the Jewish Federation of North America to bring humanitarian funds to sites of natural disaster and social upheaval. These efforts supported communities in need, regardless of religion or nationality.

But, of course, Nancy's work was primarily centered around supporting Springfield's Jewish community, making sure that every Jewish person felt that they had a home. This work became especially important in the wake of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, which claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Jewish people, saw more than 250 hostages abducted, and contributed to a rise in anti-Semitism across the world. In response to her diligent, empathetic, and determined work keeping Springfield safe for all community members, the FBI awarded the Jewish Federation of Springfield with the FBI Director Community Leadership Award, which Nancy accepted on behalf of the organization. The award recognizes the achievements of those working to better their communities by promoting education and violence prevention.

But that is far from the only recognition Nancy has received for her work strengthening Jewish identity, promoting religious and cultural understanding, and supporting Springfield's diverse community. As a past chair of the Small Cities Division of the Jewish Federations of North America, she received national recognition for her professionalism and work in community building.

After nearly a decade in her role of executive director and a lifetime committed to the idea of tikkun olam, Nancy will retire from her role this year. Loretta and I join our neighbors in Springfield in thanking Nancy for her tireless work making our community stronger and more resilient. We are grateful for all you have done for our hometown.

Nancy, in your work and in the values with which you live your life, you represent the best of Springfield. I wish you and your family all the best in this new chapter of your lives.

I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks before the rollcall vote starts.

Mr. President, I am going to be brief because I know Members will be coming in here very shortly for the vote.

It has been an honor to serve as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for 4 years. We had a big job. The biggest assignment was filling judicial vacancies. As of this moment, we filled 214 Federal vacancies at the court level through activities of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the floor.

It has been a burden, a challenge, but I want to really commend all of the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan basis for working together to fill these vacancies. Over 90 percent of these vacancies were filled on a bipartisan basis. That is saying something, isn't it, in today's America, that we were able to find common ground. We didn't agree even on all of those nominees, but, certainly, there was an effort to reach across the aisle time and time again. When you take a look at the situation in the Senate during this period of time, it was a 50-50 split in the membership of the U.S. Senate for 2 of these years and a very small majority in the other 2 years, yet we were able to get this job done.

This Senate Judiciary Committee, which I have served on for more than two decades, has given me the opportunity to review over 1,000 nominees for the Federal bench. President Biden's nominees represent some of the best I have ever seen and, certainly, achieved great levels of sophistication when it came to their background--professional and personal.

For each judicial nominee, we require that the American Bar Association do an interview of their peers in the community and find out if there is anything that we should know about them before they go up for these lifetime appointments. I am happy to report that every single nominee from

the Biden-Harris administration was found at least ``qualified,'' if not ``well qualified'' by the ABA review.

We also have indications that these members represent diversity that has never been seen before--both professional and demographic diversity--that they bring to the bench. We have confirmed more Black women to the Federal circuit courts than all the prior Presidents of the United States combined.

We confirmed the first-ever Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson--a point of personal privilege and pride for me to be part of that. She is an extraordinary Supreme Court Justice.

Beyond demographic diversity, we have professional diversity. In the past 4 years, we have confirmed more former public defenders and circuit judges than all prior Presidents combined. We have confirmed State court judges, Federal magistrates, bankruptcy judges, and prosecutors who have ample experience at the professional level before they came to this Federal opportunity.

We have confirmed jurists with experience protecting the rights of voters, workers, civil rights, women's rights, and LGBTQ rights. It is quite an array of these 214 qualified individuals.

And I might remind you that this is the vast majority. Nearly 90 percent of these confirmations have been bipartisan.

There is work to be done before we can leave here at the end of the year. Senator Schumer, as our leader, is creating opportunities for us to vote on the floor of the Senate for these lifetime appointments. Even though the work of the 118th Congress is coming to an end, our work is not done. We have 16 nominees pending on the Senate floor: 4 circuit nominees and 12 district nominees, and several more pending in committee, including 2 who will have a hearing before Thanksgiving.

There is no time to waste. The Senate must try to confirm every one of these highly qualified, diverse nominees before the sun sets on the 118th Congress. The American people deserve nothing less.

I yield the floor.