Grassley Opens Senate Judiciary Committee Nominations Hearing, Highlights Historic Pace of Judicial Confirmations

Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee

Nominations

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Today, we'll have two panels.

The first panel features Daniel Domenico, who is nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Our second panel has two nominees: Matthew Byrne, to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and Kosta Ligris, to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs.

In a moment, I'll turn to our visitors to introduce these nominees, but first I'd like to say a few words.

The American people deserve to have critical roles of government filled with capable officials in a timely fashion.

As chairman, I've ensured efficient consideration of nominations and under my leadership this Congress we're processing judicial nominations at a historic pace.

In fact, if you look at the time between nomination and confirmation, we've advanced and confirmed Article III judges faster than at any time since Ronald Reagan's presidency.

In 2025 and 2026, we've advanced and confirmed circuit judges nearly twice as fast as during the first Trump and Biden administrations.

We've had even greater success with district court nominations, where we've tripled the pace of the first Trump administration.

Under my leadership, this committee has delivered for the American people, and I want to thank my colleagues for their support and collaboration.

I also want to thank President Trump.

He continues to select highly qualified individuals to fill important roles in our courts and in the Justice Department, and that makes my job of leading their confirmations easier.

Today's nominees are part of that continued and welcome trend.

Both of today's judicial nominees are already sitting judges.

Judge Domenico is a federal district judge in Colorado and Judge Byrne serves on the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals.

It's hard to imagine better experience for a federal judgeship than prior judicial experience.

They already know what it takes to do the job, and their track record speaks for itself.

Today, we're also going to hear from Mr. Ligris, who's been nominated to lead the Office of Justice Programs (OJP).

His nomination is a breath of fresh air.

For years, both Republicans and Democrats have complained about OJP.

That office has seen bureaucratic delays in getting grants to law enforcement, victims of crimes and the public's most vulnerable.

I think everyone can agree that the grant application process needs improvement.

Mr. Ligris brings a unique background in management, the law and technology that may actually fix it.

I look forward to hearing from him and our other nominees today.

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