Date: 2003-02-26
Speaker: MARIO DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. it is an honor to be here in this wonderful Chamber to discuss what I think is a rather puzzling situation that has taken over our government. our legislative branch of the government. and in particular. the legislative branch on the other side of the Rotunda. We have seen that a number of people have tried to do anything and everything to avoid. to stop a brilliant young attorney who has been nominated by the President of the United States to be on the Appellate Court for the District of Columbia. I say he is a brilliant young attorney because everybody has had to recognize his brilliance. Those that have worked with him have had to recognize his brilliance. He has worked not only as a prosecutor from the great State of New York. he has also worked in the office of the Solicitor General with two administrations. a Republican administration and also a Democrat administration. All the people who have worked with him from both parties in both administrations have publicly recognized the brilliance. the decency. the integrity of this brilliant young attorney. a man who got here to the United States at age 17. Mr. Speaker. barely speaking English. and he got here and worked and studied. and was able to graduate with honors just a few years later from that most prestigious university. Columbia University. with honors. I repeat. Then he went on to study law. but not just in any law school. in Harvard Law School. probably. I guess. among the most prestigious law schools in the entire country. I would rather say in the entire world. He also graduated from that university. that law school. with honors. While he was studying. he was also the editor of the law journal there. the law review in that prestigious law school. He graduated with honors and went on to become a prosecutor in the State of New York. That was after he was prosecutor. I am sorry. He went on to work with the Solicitor Generals office under President George Bush. Senior. and then he also "worked for President Clintons administration in the Office of the Solicitor General. an incredible. impeccable record. I am trying tosee if I can get some of my colleagues here to maybe try to explain to me what is going on here. Why is it that this brilliant young man. this brilliant Hispanic lawyer. is being treated differently than others who have had similar records. similar experiences. who have gone on to become judges and have not received the obstacles. have not been attacked the way Mr. Miguel Estrada is being attacked today? And this attack has been going on now for a long. long time. I brought just a calendar to kind of let us know how long it has been. It has been almost 2 years. 2 years since this young brilliant. talented. effective man of integrity has been held hostage. As we see here. not only has Miguel Estrada been held hostage. but diversity in our court system has been held hostage. I Just do not get it. I see here the gentleman from Florida . I do not know if the gentleman has an explanation as to why it is that the minority party in the other Chamber insists on not letting this man even come up for a vote. to the point where they are using all sorts of procedural matters to not permit this man to even have the opportunity for his nomination to be voted up or down.