{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=AB470D15-EDB6-481E-A72C-810FA0E108A3", "Barrasso: America Needs Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court", "2018-09-12", "2018", "2018-09", "Republican", "House", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso's remarks.\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) spoke on the Senate floor about why he believes the Senate should move quickly to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to serve as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.\r\nExcerpts of Senator Barrasso's remarks:\r\nThe Senate recently completed what was easily the most productive August in memory.\r\nWe passed six appropriations bills with a full debate on the Senate floor.\r\nWe passed the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act.\r\nWe confirmed 25 appointees to important jobs in the administration.\r\nWe confirmed 17 federal judges to the bench  and we set up votes for another eight earlier this month.\r\nWhen I was home in Wyoming, I talked with a number of people all around the state and they were very pleased to see how much we've actually been getting done.\r\nI can tell you that they absolutely think that we should keep up this pace.\r\nMaybe the most important thing that people expect us to deal with quickly is confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.\r\nWe're off to a good start with the confirmation hearings for Judge Kavanaugh that were held last week in the Judiciary Committee.\r\nWhat people learned is that Judge Kavanagh is a well-respected, mainstream, highly qualified person for this important job.\r\nWhat people also saw is that some Democrats in the Senate were totally unwilling to give him fair consideration.\r\nSenators have been given access to more than 500,000 pages of records from his time as a judge and throughout his career in public service.\r\nThat's three times the amount of information that any other Supreme Court nominee has ever produced.\r\nFor some nominees to the Supreme Court, these kinds of documents are very important.\r\nThey can tell us a lot about how a nominee thinks, about how he or she might approach the job of being a justice.\r\nIt's especially important when the person under consideration has never served as a judge before  sometimes that's all we have to look at.\r\nWell, that's not the case here.\r\nJudge Kavanaugh has served on the Circuit Court for 12 years and he has written opinions in 300 cases.\r\nIf anyone wants to know what he'll act like as a judge, they can just look at how he's already acted as a judge for the past dozen years.\r\nThese are documents that matter.\r\nThey are the ones that tell us how he approaches being a judge.\r\nSenators have had access to these court opinions since the day Judge Kavanaugh was nominated eight weeks ago.\r\nIf Democrats would just take the time to read through these opinions, they would see that Judge Kavanaugh is extremely thoughtful and he's independent.\r\nHe is absolutely devoted to preserving the rule of law, to protecting the separation of powers that is the basis of our Constitution.\r\nIf Democrats don't want to read through all of these documents and these decisions, they could focus on the 13 cases where the Supreme Court adopted Judge Kavanaugh's reasoning.\r\nThat's how much respect other judges and justices have for his careful and compelling decisions for which he has written.\r\nThere was one case that dealt with a regulation that the Environmental Protection Agency wrote.\r\nJudge Kavanaugh found that the agency exceeded its authority under the law when it wrote their regulation.\r\nHe wrote: It is not our job to make the policy choices and set the statutory boundaries, but it is emphatically our job to carefully but firmly enforce the statutory boundaries.'\r\nThe Supreme Court agreed with Judge Kavanaugh's reasoning.\r\nOne constitutional scholar pointed out that Judge Kavanaugh commands wide and deep respect among scholars, lawyers, judges, and justices.'\r\nAnother legal scholar said Judge Kavanaugh is one of the most learned judges in America on a variety of issues, ranging from theories of statutory interpretation to separation of powers.' A third law professor agreed.\r\nHe called Judge Kavanaugh a true intellectual  a leading thinker and writer on the subjects of statutory interpretation and federal courts.'\r\nFinally, if it's even too much for some Democratic senators to read through all of the glowing reviews of Judge Kavanaugh's career, they could just look at what he's actually said.\r\nLook at his own simple, straightforward summary of his judging philosophy.\r\nIn a speech last year he made it very clear.\r\nHe said, The judge's job is to interpret the law, not to make the law or make policy.'\r\nThis view  and every example I have seen from Judge Kavanaugh's record  is squarely in the mainstream of American legal thinking today.\r\nDespite all of this information being available, some Democrats are trying to say that they still want even more documents.\r\nThey are hoping against hope that if they request another 500,000 pages they can delay things a little longer.\r\nLet me assure you, it's not going to happen.\r\nI think that most Democrats who have been making the most noise really don't want more documents.\r\nThat's because so many of the Democrats complaining the loudest are the ones who've already made up their mind and made announcements that they are planning to vote against the nominee.\r\nSome were saying it before the nomination was even announced.\r\nFrom the very beginning, liberal activists called on Senator Schumer to do everything in his power to keep this seat empty for as long as necessary.'\r\nThere are several senators on the other side of the aisle who have gladly taken up this challenge from the far-left corners of their base.\r\nI hope that more-reasonable Democrats will reject the calls for needless delays and dangerous obstruction.\r\nI hope that there are Democrats in the Senate who are willing to listen to what Judge Kavanaugh actually said during his hearing.\r\nI hope that there are Democrats who are willing to read some of the hundreds of thousands of pages of documents.\r\nI hope that there are Democrats who are willing to listen to the experts who are describing Judge Kavanaugh as one of the most learned judges in our country.\r\nIt is clear that Judge Kavanaugh has the right approach to being a judge.\r\nIt is clear that he is a person of solid character  and that he has a strong intellect.\r\nIt is clear that America needs Judge Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court  and that it's time for Democrats to give up this pointless obstruction.\r\n                                                  ###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=AB470D15-EDB6-481E-A72C-810FA0E108A3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4839032664895058, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}