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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Judge Jeffrey Bryan to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Judge Bryan received his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D. from Yale Law School. After clerking for Judge Paul A. Magnuson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, Judge Bryan worked in private practice at Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP on a range of complex civil matters and Federal white collar criminal cases. Judge Bryan then went on to serve as a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota for 6 years, where he handled more than 1,000 hearings in Federal court. During his time as an assistant U.S. attorney, he directed the largest cocaine and methamphetamine investigations ever conducted in the district, recovering more than 9,600 grams of methamphetamine and securing the convictions of more than 60 defendants. In 2013, Judge Bryan was appointed as a trial court judge for the Second Judicial District of Minnesota, where he presided over more than 8,000 cases and nearly 120 trials. In 2016, Judge Bryan was appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, where he has participated in more than 500 decisions and has authored over 180 written opinions and orders.

The American Bar Association unanimously rated Judge Bryan ``well qualified'' to serve on the district court, and he has the strong support of Senators Klobuchar and Smith. With nearly two decades of public service, as well as his extensive courtroom experience, Judge Bryan is well-positioned to handle the demands of the District of Minnesota from day one.

I urge my colleagues to support his nomination.

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