[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 131 (Friday, September 20, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11121-S11122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             FEDERAL JUDGES

  Mr. DORGAN. I ask the Senator whether any of the unanimous consent 
requests he is intending to propound would include the clearing of any 
judgeships. If so, we would certainly be favorably disposed to not 
object to that. If not, I am wondering if just in this moment I might 
learn whether we would have an opportunity to clear any additional 
judges that are now waiting clearance?
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I do not believe there are any judges on 
this list that have been cleared tonight. There is--hope springs 
eternal. I know the Judiciary Committee had a meeting this week. There 
was some discussion about some of the judges that are pending. I 
believe there are only six judges that are on the calendar before the 
Senate at this time, four circuit judges and two district judges.
  None of those have been cleared through the process at this point.
  Mr. DORGAN. If the Senator will further yield, I want to make the 
point there are 22 additional judges awaiting action by the Judiciary 
Committee. I heard from some that there is no intention of clearing 
additional judges. My hope is that would not be the case.
  I wonder if the Senator expects we might be clearing additional 
judges?
  Mr. LOTT. I am not on the Judiciary Committee. I have discussed it 
with the chairman and other members of the committee. I don't think any 
decision has been made yet on whether or not they might report some 
more. I know they are looking at some of them. I will note 4 years ago 
at this time, I believe there were 50 Federal judges that had been 
nominated that were left either in the committee or on the Calendar.
  Numberwise, I think we are probably in much better shape than the 
situation was 4 years ago. And I must say, I am pleased that I was able 
to work with Members on both sides of the aisle in July, for the most 
part, and early August. We cleared 17 judges, some of whom had been 
pending on the Calendar for 6 or 7 months--17 out of 23.
  So we did pretty good work. Some of them were controversial, and it 
took more than one try. In fact, I think I tried 3 times on a block of 
9 judges, but we did get 17 of them done. I thought that was good 
progress.
  Mr. DORGAN. If I might, Mr. President, with the consent of the 
Senator from Mississippi, observe, he deserves

[[Page S11122]]

commendation for getting some of these judgeships moving. He did work 
on them very hard. I will just say, I don't think we have done as well 
as we did 2 years ago. It is true, 50 were left, but we cleared far 
more 2 years ago, 4 years ago, 6 years ago. The reason so many were 
left is they were submitted late.
  The fact is, I don't think we have done as good a job as I think we 
should for the Judiciary. We tried hard not only to get a CR passed but 
also clear some of these judges on the Calendar, as well as those 
awaiting action by the Judiciary Committee. I appreciate the Senator 
yielding.

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