Joe Biden rebukes GOP senators over delaying hearing for Merrick Garland
Vice President Joe Biden is out with a new video Saturday chastising Republican senators over their stalling of a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.
Biden warned in the weekly White House address that "if Republican senators fail to act, it could be an entire year before a fully staffed Supreme Court can resolve any significant issue before it."
"Folks, there's enough dysfunction in Washington, D.C.," he said. "Now is not the time for it to spread to the Supreme Court."
Garland, the chief judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was nominated by President Obama in March to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. More than four months later, Garland has yet to receive a date for a nomination hearing before the Senate.
"Nobody is suggesting that senators have to vote 'yes' on a nominee. Voting 'no' is always an option," said Biden, who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for 17 years while in the Senate. "But saying nothing, seeing nothing, reading nothing, hearing nothing, and deciding in advance simply to turn your backs is not an option the Constitution leaves open."
"And the longer the vacancy remains unfilled, the more serious the problem--with greater confusion and uncertainty about our safety and security," he added.
The Supreme Court has already faced a tie vote on a major case this year. In June, the bench handed down a 4-4 decision in a case challenging the president's landmark immigration actions, dealing a blow to the administration's efforts at expanding protections for undocumented immigrants.
Biden was joined by retired Judge Tim Lewis for the video, who was nominated to a federal seat by a Republican president and confirmed by a majority-Democratic Senate within four weeks of a presidential election.
"I'm living proof that President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Chief Judge Merrick Garland, deserves similar consideration by today's Senate," Lewis said. "The sitting president shall--not may--but shall nominate someone to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, with the advice and consent of the Senate. That includes consulting and voting."
"For the sake of the country we love, we all have to do our job," Biden said. "The president has done his. Senate Republicans must do theirs."
In their own video, Republican Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio touted a bill passed in Congress last month meant to combat the growing opioid epidemic around the country.
The bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), Portman said, "makes the federal government a better partner with states and local communities and nonprofits in the fight against this epidemic."
Portman explained that CARA increases federal investment into opioid recovery programs by $181 million a year and reserves those funds for proven organizations. CARA aims to grow prevention efforts with a new national awareness campaign and to help with treatment by expanding drug courts and increasing access to the emergency drug naloxone, which immediately reverses the effects of a drug overdose.
But the Ohio senator cautioned that the fight to continuously fund CARA is still ahead.
"Through CARA, Congress has decided to spend significantly more taxpayer dollars to address the epidemic and changed how the money is spent so it is more effective," he said. "Now we need to fight for this every year in the annual spending bills. I welcome the White House's engagement and support in that effort.