WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) proposed the Senate remaining in session into the month of August or changing Senate rules if Democrats persist in their extreme and unprecedented obstruction of President Trump’s nominees. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“I don’t believe, Mr. President, that the Senate should leave town without ensuring that President Trump has his nominees and his team in place.”

“We find ourselves really in an unprecedented situation where Democrats, rather than picking and choosing the nominees they choose to object to, have simply chosen to object to all of them, forcing us to burn a lot of valuable floor time that we could be using for other more constructive purposes, and delaying President Trump, who after all, won the election last November, the team he’s entitled to govern and carry out his policies.”

“What our Democratic colleagues are saying is, we will agree to no confirmation votes on Trump nominees during his second term.”

“Many of these nominees – I think roughly 30 of them – are Senate-confirmed nominees to serve as an ambassador in our embassies around the world.”

“I don’t have to remind all of us that the world has become a much more dangerous place and, the idea that the United States would not have a Senate-confirmed ambassador in these embassies around the world is simply shooting ourselves in the foot.”

“China and Russia and our other adversaries, they certainly have their ambassadors working in each of those countries to further their interests, but the idea that the United States would be absent because Senate Democrats simply refuse to confirm these ambassadors is really beyond the pale.”

“What we’re talking about really are rank-and-file people, who are confirmed by a vote of the Senate.”

“I personally believe that we should change the law and not require Senate confirmation for many of these positions.”

“The Democrats simply are mindlessly obstructing the confirmation of these non-controversial, really apolitical nominees.”

“If we can’t reach some sort of negotiated outcome that is satisfactory to President Trump, then we need to either stay here or change the Senate rules.”

“Senate Democrats are the ones that brought us to where we are today, and they’re the ones responsible for the blame.”