[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 135 (Friday, August 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12521-S12522]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 NOMINATION OF WILLIAM K. SESSIONS III

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, when I recommended Bill Sessions to the 
President in March, I described him as a respected lawyer from 
Middlebury with a wide range of legal experience. He has distinguished 
himself by his contributions to the community and by his participation 
in efforts to improve our justice system. I have great confidence that 
Bill Sessions will be a fair, thoughtful and conscientious addition to 
the Federal bench in Vermont.
  Vermont is blessed with a very talented bench and bar and making a 
recommendation among them was difficult. In the end, I relied on the 
standard I have cited for years: I recommended the person that I 
believe any litigant on any issue can be assured will provide a fair 
and judicious hearing and a common sense determination of disputes and 
problems.
  Bill's integrity and fairness are impeccable. He will be concerned 
with applying the laws fairly and with how the Federal courts and 
Federal laws affect people.
  I have known and admired Bill Sessions for a number of years. He is a 
devoted father and husband. He is involved in the community. His legal 
work is outstanding. I know of his involvement in the bar in a number 
of positions, including with the rule of law project of the Vermont Bar 
Association and the civil justice reform project for the Vermont 
district court.
  Bill graduated from Middlebury College and received his law degree 
with honors from George Washington University. He served as Addison 
County public defender as well as the executive director of the Addison 
County Youth Services Bureau. He has served as an adjunct professor at 
Vermont Law School, where he received the Phi Delta Phi Academic 
Excellence Award in 1982. He has been engaged in the private practice 
of law for the past 17 years, most recently with the firm of Sessions, 
Keiner, Dumont & Barnes. He has handled a wide variety of matters, in 
particular complex criminal and related civil matters in both Federal 
and State court, and has tremendous trial experience. The ABA gave this 
nominee its highest rating.
  I was struck during his confirmation hearings last year when Justice 
Breyer spoke so eloquently about the Constitution and its guarantees of 
individual dignity. I believe that Bill Sessions has spent his 
professional life working to uphold human dignity.
  I am convinced that Bill Sessions will always remember the effects 
that his decisions will have on real people--people who may not be 
powerful or well-connected. He has demonstrated that he has not only 
mastered the complexities of the law but its meaning. I feel sure that 
he will do his utmost to see that the decisions of the U.S. district 
court in Vermont reflect both the letter and the spirit of law. He will 
make an outstanding Judge.
  I am pleased that the President's nomination of Bill Sessions has 
drawn praise from a number of quarters, ranging from law enforcement 
officers including the U.S. Attorney, the U.S. Marshal and States 
attorneys, to State and Federal judges including Judges Billings, 
Parker, and Davenport. Indeed, the Judiciary Committee received a 
number of letters in support of this nomination. I would, in 
particular, like to mention the letters from Doug Richards, the chair 
of the Vermont Judicial Nominating Advisory Commission; Susanne Young, 
a Vermont assistant attorney general; Peter Hall, a former first 
assistant and acting U.S. attorney; and Charles Caruso, a former acting 
U.S. attorney.
  I have every confidence that Bill Sessions will make an outstanding 
Federal judge, who will be just, practical and hardworking on behalf of 
the people of Vermont. I have every confidence that once confirmed he 
will successfully resist the pressures to become cloistered away from 
the world. I think that his strong involvement with his vibrant family 
and his community will help protect him. I doubt that Abi, Hannah, Myra 
and Jonathan are going to allow him to lose touch.
  Vermont is the only State in the Union to have only one full-time 
Federal judge currently. Since Judge 

[[Page S 12522]]
Parker was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second 
Circuit last year and Judge Billings assumed senior status, Vermont has 
been without its complement of two U.S. District Court judges. Vermont 
deserves to have its Federal judges considered, confirmed and in place 
ready to rule on important matters.
  I thank the President for nominating Bill Sessions and thank my 
colleagues for expediting his confirmation. I commend them all for 
recognizing the merit of this extraordinary nominee.
                       NOMINATION OF JILL L. LONG

  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I strongly support the nomination of Jill 
Long to be the Under Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Economic and 
Community Development. As chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, 
Nutrition, and Forestry, I successfully urged my colleagues on that 
committee to support my fellow Hoosier for this key position. The 
committee approved her nomination by a unanimous voice vote on August 
9.
  Many Senators have worked with Jill as a respected and valued 
colleague on the House Agriculture Committee. She served on that 
committee with distinction from the time of her election to Congress in 
1989.
  Jill Long was raised on a grain and dairy farm in Whitley County, 
Indiana. Her active involvement in helping to manage the farm continued 
through the difficult period of the 1980s.
  At the same time, she began her public service in 1983 on the 
Valparaiso City Council. She has a distinguished teaching career at 
Valparaiso University, Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort 
Wayne, and Indiana University in Bloomington.
  The nominee has had a long interest in rural development issues. 
During her chairmanship of the Congressional Rural Caucus, that group's 
membership more than doubled. She has a reputation for approaching 
issues thoughtfully and with common sense.
  Although we are of different parties, we have often worked together 
in a bipartisan way on issues that affected our State. Last year, we 
joined in promoting legislation to roll back unnecessary and intrusive 
federal environmental regulations that, in effect, treated soybean oil 
as the equivalent of toxic petroleum oil.
  The agencies and programs Ms. Long will oversee are important to 
rural America's future. We must consolidate an array of existing 
programs into a more coherent economic development effort. The 
Agriculture Committee voted to do precisely that when it approved a 
rural development title for the 1995 farm bill last month.
  The nominee will need both creativity and perseverance to manage 
effectively her substantial portfolio at USDA. She will need to set 
priorities and identify opportunities. She must decisively correct 
problems and insist on efficient management. She will need to provide 
focus to a part of USDA that is very important--but suffers from a lack 
of clear direction.
  I believe Jill Long is well qualified for the position to which she 
has been nominated. She acquitted herself ably during her confirmation 
hearing, and I urge Senators to vote in favor of her nomination.


                          ____________________