Issued April 06, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C.—SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry issued the following statement regarding Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) decision to change the long-standing 60-vote standard for confirming U.S. Supreme Court nominees:
“Working families nationwide have made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to their elected officials and spoken out at rallies and protests against making Judge Neil Gorsuch our next Supreme Court justice.
“In a political and economic system where self-interested politicians have rigged the rules against working people, our families need an independent Supreme Court to check legislative and executive branches run by those who put corporate interests over the needs of working people. Judge Gorsuch’s record proves time and time again that he is not fit to serve in this role.
“Instead of responding to the American people, Sen. McConnell has decided to rig the rules of the entire U.S. Senate in order to confirm a man who has consistently sided with corporations that take advantage of their employees. Whether it was Alphonse Maddin, whose employer fired him for escaping lethally frigid weather, a female UPS driver being discriminated against for her gender, or a young man killed by a police officer’s stun gun, Judge Gorsuch has consistently come down against the best interests of American families to help advance corporations’ bottom line.
“Senate rules have protected the voices of all Americans for hundreds of years to ensure the voice of the people prevails. By suddenly changing centuries of Senate tradition, Sen. McConnell and self-interested Republican leadership are once again ignoring the will of the American people to appease their corporate backers.”