reporters scoured his financial disclosure and learns that he and his friends buy tickets to baseball games and he pays his bills, as you can see, there's still plenty of silliness to go around. i urge all of my colleagues to treat his record truthfully, treat the confirmation process with the respect that it's in this institution in which we serve deserves. we need to act like responsible united states senators. going through a confirmation process in the united states. >> yesterday had the chance to meet with the president's nominee to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of justice

anthony kennedy of the supreme court. i'm pleased with the nominee that the president has chosen. after talking with him yesterday morning i look forward to supporting his nomination and doing what i can to ensure his bipartisan confirmation. my conversation with judge kavanaugh refresh my memory that we had met in 2000 when i was attorney general of texas. i was preparing to deliver an oral argument before the united states supreme court, something i had never done before but thanks to judge kavanaugh, paul and ted olson, both of whom have been solicitor general of the united states, they help me get prepared into the best job i was capable of doing before the court, providing me a good

opportunity. it was good to catch up with judge kavanaugh, mike followed his career closely. in the interim he served as a circuit court judge in the d.c. circuit court, the second most important court in the nation. that is primarily because it is located here in the district of columbia. most of the major cases involving administrative authority, federal power and at finding their way one way or the other through the d.c. circuit court of appeal. he has had a great judicial career, he has written on a variety of topics. i would say he is pretty well known, you will hear a lot of demands for additional information, i am for as much transparency as can be provided. senators have a right to get their hands on us much information on the nominee and his qualifications, how he might

perform as a supreme court justice. i hope it does not turn into a delay of game tactic, he has had a long career in the government, worked at the white house as staff secretary, for those unfamiliar means he is the last person who sees a piece of paper before presented to the president for signature. that does not mean he is the publisher or author of that paper, many times it is to make sure it is correct, accurate, verified and authenticated. but then he is the one who decides to turn it to the president for response. it could be major matters or minor matters. i have we do not get to a point where people won every document that he has been copied on or seen and somehow that becomes essential for senators before they can decide whether or not

to support his confirmation. we have also had senators come out and announced the opposition to the nominee before he was an ounce. i think our friends from pennsylvania did that. so in other words announced his opposition to anyone that the president might nominate to fill the vacancy. i hope we do not hear from people like that, that now they need more information. they have already made their decision. it is a waste of everybody's time and insults to the rest of the senators who are doing their due diligence who are trying to do their due diligence many people are familiar with the art of judge kavanaugh's career. let me mention a few things so

it is not lost in all of the noise in washington. he graduated with honors from yellow college into tented yellow school. one of the elite universities on law schools in the country. he clerked for two fellow judges and anthony kennedy on the supreme court. those are the types of jobs he knows are highly competitive and only the best of the best get asked to serve as law clerks to appellate judges and certainly to the supreme court. then, he went in private practice and worked in the white house counsel's office thereafter. finally staff secretary that i mentioned a few months moments ago before being confirmed on the federal bench in washington. i want to step back for a mome moment, in the weeks ahead we will have time to talk about his credentials and his experience in his decisions, we will have

time to look at all of the dissents, the concurrences and majority that he has written on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. it's also important to know the man, to know the person. unfortunately, washington, d.c. has a way of chewing up people. , because their personality and humanity become separated from the political basis or ideological basis from which people may oppose them. i think it is important to know the qualities of this man, because it informs us about his character which i hope we all agree is an important element in qualifications for federal judge. judge kavanaugh is active in his community. we heard on the night the

announcement he was made, he is known as coach k for his daughter's basketball team and acts as a lector at his church. he serves meals to needy families and tutors children at local elementary schools. frankly, i don't know where he finds the time to do all those things while serving on the district court of appeals. one friend calls him a carpool dad. we all know that is a dad who drives the kids to school. that comment was reported in the washington post. the spring they wrote that those who know judge kavanaugh's character was rendered eight unanimous verdict in his favor. . . pire to do -- i just made it through a half-marathon, never a full marathon, much less the boston marathon -- and he's won

his court's annual 5k races. i've seen him over in anacostia when we've a race for charity that many of our senate offices participate in, and i believe i've seen him run in those 5k races with his team. professionally judge kavanaugh known as a distinguished legal professional. but it's important to know that even amidst the hustle and bustle of a high-powered legal bustle of a high-powered legal high-power legal career he found time to do a lot of really important things while private practice for the example he was head of the practice group devoted to protecting religious liberty is. you don't earn a big fee as a lawyer by advocating in the cases involving religious religs liberties typically these are cases where you volunteerol your time and believe in the right in the citizens to have their case

heard particularly when it comes to the liberties. he's advocated on behalf of those in regardless of their ability to pay whose religious liberties are at risk. he also wrote two briefings fore the court supporting the cause of religious liberty including i believe the case i mentioned earlier that i argued in the supreme court involving the independent school district sued by the civil liberties union to prevent them from allowing a student to volunteer their time to offer an inspirational saying or prayer before a football game and texas. he offered amicus briefs in support of that case. he's the father of two daughters, something near to my heart as a presiding officer i

know has two daughters of ali raleigh and he's been a mentor to many law students that he's taught over the years. his colleague jack goldsmith a distinguished lawyer in his own right described him as having many considerable strengths as a judge and potential justice and also as a person. hisme former professor who supported hillary clinton in the last election wrote in "the new york times" a couple days ago that he's a superb nominee who's already shown flashes of greatness. i believe the headline of the piece talked about the liberal case a and i appreciate his willingness to talk about the man and his professional credentials and not get bogged down in the polarized politics of the judicial confirmations in washington. he called up the nomination

president trumps finest hour, his classiest move. that's pretty impressive. these are just a few of the reasons why in the senate we mso move forwardan confidently. we will proceedut thoroughly but with expedition. it is after all our role now that the president has discharged his constitutional role to offer advice and consent on the president's nominee. the president i believe has chosen wisely just as he did for the vacancy created by the unfortunate death of justice scalia. the president has chosen well again and i believe this nominee is deserving of the high honor to serve the nation's highest court. now there are some who said we need to wait or that there's not

enough time before the midterm election to confirm the judge. that is a pretty transparent tactic. he's vacating the bench by the end of this month so when the supreme court reconvenes on october 1 i believe it is the first monday in october, it would be good to have the vacancy left by the retirement ofdy judge kennedy filled with this nominee. so the idea that we can somehow ent this off until after i think makes no sense or it makes sense only from the standpoint of stalling the confirmation process. i agree with our friend from connecticut who said recently the senate should do nothing to artificially delay consideration of the next justice. i agree with him.

since they were confirmed just 66 days from the time they were nominated, a similar amount of time shouldn't be unreasonable, and i'm not suggesting that it be exactly 66 days. it might be a few days earlier on a fewhen a few days later.ut but just do to orient everybody about the timeframe we're talking about if it were 66 days like the justice that would mean we would vote to confirm kavanagh september 13 if my math is correct. well, we know that these judicial nominations particularly for the supreme court of the united states are hotly contested and that's because on the left they see the court as an end run around the

democratic process. what you cannot win in an election and debate and vote of congress if you can get the court to do it on elected lifetime appointed judges then you basically one in advancing the policy decision. i would say that the opposite philosophy is one that was embraced by alexander hamilton and james madison who viewed the court as what they called it the least b dangerous branch because they viewed the cour court as nt being political.

that's why they are so upset. i think that this president's nominee because he is what i'd call a traditional judge. somebody who believes that judges have a very important job in the government, but it is a limited job and role. in other words, the main responsibility for making public policy should fall on the shoulders of members of congress and the president because we stand for election and if people don't like what they are doing then they can knock on the door and say senator, we don't like you're doing. you can't do that for a federal

judge. that's wh why their role under e constitution is circumscribed as interpreting the law and applying the fact the south wall. but iis understand why our fries across the aisle are disappointed. they were hoping president hillary clinton wil would be fig this vacancy and majority leader chuck schumer would be the one guiding the nomination for u.s. senate. instead, they were disappointed and i understand it is a normal human reaction this president trumps one, so he's the one making the nomination and the republican senate led by the majority leader mcconnell is the one guiding the nomination through. i understand their disappointment but it's no reason to drag your feet or omnstruct an orderly and thoughtful deliberative process when it comes to filling this vacancy. we are going to have a chance to talk about this topic a lot in

the coming weeks. but on a separate note, i want to address the situation unfolding on the us-mexico border. as of 7 a.m.ow this morning, we heard that the trump administration has now complied with a court order and completed the reunification of the children under the age of five. now those children have been reunited with their parents which i think we all should be grateful for. they have been working tirelessly to complete these initial reunification. their goal has always been the well-being of these children and returning them to a safe

environment. as we can see from this morning's report, the administration needs the time to vet all the people. in fact, in some instances they actually have to take dna tests to confirm the claim of the adult who brought the child across is in fact their biological parents because we know the cartels are very sophisticated and if they could simply pai pair up an unaccompad child within adult and send them across the border claiming to be a family unit, they could basically navigate the gaps in the enforcement system against illegal immigration. over the next few weeks we know federal officials will be working to reunite all other separated families as they should. this is one thing we all agree on, republican and democratic alike these families should be kept together. this is consistent with the

executive order as well as a bill introduced along with other colleagues cold keep families together. one is treating families with concussion by allowing them to remain a together and also enforcing the immigration laws on the book. they don't have to be mutually exclusive into the book will ensure that they are not. it will allow parents to stay with their children in a safe facility while awaiting their court proceedings. in other words, a number of these children and adults are claiming asylum and that could be decided by an immigration judge so what we'd like to do is move them to the head of the line and get them a hearing in front of an immigration judge on a timely basis and sets the standards for the centers to

keep children safe by requiring that they be removed from the care of an individual that the safety. but i would say in conclusion that this is not a new problem. we know they are basically in a meltdown mode. the game was violent organizations are threatening the safety and welfare of the central american countries and what we saw this with president obama called a humanitarian crisis when tens of thousands of these children unaccompanied by it. were turned over to these organizations and transported to central america all the way through mexico into the united states where they were then processed and placed with a

sponsor here in the united states consistent with the law currently in effect. but this isn't new. it just the cartels, the organizations found a way to circumvent american law unless weg change and fix it and what they are hoping for ultimately is a restoration of the catch and release policies of the past. wwhat happens when people are t presented before a judge on a timely basis as they are given a notice to appear in the future and told to come back for your hearing in months or years lat later. the vast majority of those people don't show up for their hearings. so the criminal organizations who profit from this business model and the people who illegally immigrate in the united states have basically

gamed the system and unless we are willing to a stand up to fix it then shame on us so this is about to issue is one is compassionate treatment of children treating the adults with dignity and also making sure the laws are enforced. some of our colleagues across the aisle have said let's just abolish law enforcement at the border. let's abolish customs enforcement and i ice as it is called. how would we be maintaining fidelityf with our own to suppot the constitutional laws of the united states if we wouldn't see to it that our agencies that perform important and necessary duties along the border and throughout the country were not

there with the support we asked them to do. i know there's been a lot of discussion about the legislation but patients ceases to be a virtue and i would expect at some point there may be an opportunity for one or more senators to offer this legislation by unanimous consent and we will see who wants to be a constructive player in the process and object and abstract our ability to fix this crisis at the border. it's created one of the consequential vacancies at the high court that this country hav ever seen. there ist a reason some dems hae often referred to the supreme court has attended the court that is