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Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today the Senate will vote to confirm Mary Kay Costello to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

From 1986 to 1994, Ms. Costello served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. She then earned her B.A. from Temple University and her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law.

After completing law school, she began her legal career in private practice as a litigation associate with Saul Ewing LLP, then moved to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in 2004. While in private practice, she handled a range of commercial litigation matters.

Since 2008, Ms. Costello has served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. She is currently assigned to the public corruption and civil rights unit, and she previously served in the healthcare fraud and government fraud unit and the consumer and commercial fraud unit. She has prosecuted criminal cases involving bribery, drug diversion schemes, and schemes to defraud the government, including successful prosecutions in several illegal drug distribution cases involving ``pill mills.''

Over the course of her legal career, Ms. Costello has tried 11 cases to verdict, all of which were before a jury.

Ms. Costello has the strong support of both of her home State Senators, Mr. Casey and Mr. Fetterman, and the American Bar Association unanimously rated her as ``well qualified.''

Ms. Costello is a highly accomplished litigator whose breadth of experience and dedication to service make her an outstanding nominee to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting her nomination.

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