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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Ana Reyes, who has been nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Ms. Reyes first immigrated to this country when she was 5 years old. At the time, she could not speak any English. That quickly changed through her hard work and with the help of her first-grade teacher, Pat Harkleroad, who came to Ms. Reyes' Louisville, KY, elementary school an hour early each morning to provide one-on-one English lessons.

Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Ms. Reyes built off of this foundational experience to earn her B.A. summa cum laude from Transylvania University in 1996 and her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2000.

After clerking for the Honorable Amalya Kearse on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Ms. Reyes joined Williams & Connolly as an associate in 2001. Promoted to partner in 2009, Ms. Reyes has spent her career specializing in complex litigation and international arbitration, trying 10 cases to verdict, judgment, or final decision.

Although she has been in private practice for her whole career, Ms. Reyes has illustrated her commitment to public service by devoting over 3,300 hours to pro bono work. While her pro bono work spans several fields, including criminal defense, a significant amount of her efforts has been directed towards representing asylum seekers fleeing political persecution, torture, and gender-based violence.

The American Bar Association has unanimously rated Ms. Reyes as ``well qualified'' to serve on the D.C. District Court and, if confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic woman and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to ever serve on the D.C. District Court.

I look forward to supporting this highly-qualified nominee and urge my colleagues to join me in doing so.

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