[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 64 (Thursday, May 15, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4516-S4517]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, yesterday Mr. Leahy and several of my
colleagues spoke about judicial confirmations. Let me make a few
additional points. First, we are experiencing a record slowdown in
confirming judges. Last year, only 17 Federal judges were confirmed,
and not a single judge for a court of appeals. This year, the process
has gotten even worse--only two judges have been confirmed, and the
year is almost half over. Indeed, at our current pace, with only 5
judges likely to be confirmed a year, and an average of more than 50
retiring, we would have no federal judges at all in 20 years.
Literally, an empty bench.
Second, we need these judges, both to prosecute and sentence violent
criminals and to prevent more backlogs in civil cases. This is about
justice--it shouldn't be about politics. Don't take my word on this,
ask Chief Justice Rehnquist. He says ``filling judicial vacancies is
crucial to the fair and effective administration of justice.'' Chief
Justice Rehnquist is right.
Or ask Judge George Kazen from the Southern District of Texas. He is
the subject of a front page article in today's Washington Post with the
headline ``Cases Pile Up as Judgeships Remain Vacant.'' He is hearing a
dramatic increase in criminal cases now
[[Page S4517]]
because we're cracking down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling
in his border district. He desperately wants and needs help. But we
haven't helped. Instead, the Senate has held up a nominee for his
district for almost 2 years. I ask unanimous consent to print this
article in the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(see exhibit 1.)
Mr. President, third, inaction now can only make matters worse. If we
don't start moving judges, some Senators might feel compelled to put a
hold on all other legislative business. Or the President could be
forced to make recess appointments to the Federal bench. Of course, no
one wants either of these things, including me. But if we don't confirm
nominees through the normal process, I am afraid this is what could
happen.
Mr. President, let's breathe life back into the confirmation process.
Let's vote on the nominees who already have been approved by the
Judiciary Committee, and let's set a timetable for future hearings on
pending judges. Let's fulfill our constitutional responsibilities;
justice demands that at a minimum. I thank you, and I yield the floor.
Exhibit 1
[From the Washington Post, May 15, 1997]
Cases Pile Up as Judgeships Remain Vacant
(By Sue Anne Pressley)
Laredo, TX.--The drug and illegal immigrant cases keep
coming. No sooner does Chief U.S. District Judge George Kazen
clear one case than a stack of new cases piles up. He takes
work home at night, on weekends.
``It's like a tidal wave,'' Kazen said recently. ``As soon
as I finish 25 cases per month, the next 25 are on top of me
and then you've got the sentence reports you did two months
before. There is no stop, no break at all, year in and year
out, here they come.
``We've already got more than we can say grace over down
here,'' he said.
This is what happens to a federal judge on the southern
border of the United States when Washington cracks down on
illegal immigration and drug smuggling. It is a situation
much aggravated by the fact that the Senate in Washington has
left another federal judgeship in this district vacant for
two years, one of 72 vacancies on federal district courts
around the country.
As Border Patrol officers and other federal agents swarm
this southernmost region of Texas along the Mexican border in
ever-increasing numbers, Judge Kazen's docket has grown and
grown. He has suggested, so far unsuccessfully, that a
judgeship in Houston be reassigned to the Rio Grande Valley
to help cope.
In Washington, where the laws and policies were adopted
that has made Kazen's life so difficult, the Senate has made
confirmation of federal judges a tedious process, often
fraught with partisan politics. In addition to the 72 federal
district court vacancies (the trial level), there are 25
circuit court vacancies (the appellate level) and two vacant
international trade court judgeships across the country,
leaving unfilled 99 positions, or 11 percent of the federal
judiciary. Twenty-six nominations from President Clinton are
pending, according to Jeanne Lopatto, spokeswoman for the
Senate Judiciary Committee, which considers nominations for
recommendation to the full Senate for confirmation.
Of those 99 vacancies, 24 qualify as judicial emergencies,
meaning the positions have been vacant more than 18 months,
according to David Sellers of the Administrative Office of
the U.S. Courts. Two of the emergencies exit in Texas,
including the one in Kazen's southern district.
Lopatto said the thorough investigation of each nominee is
a time-consuming process. But political observes say
Republicans, who run the Senate, are in no hurry to approve
candidates submitted by a Democratic president. The pinch is
particularly painful here in border towns. The nominee for
Brownsville, in Kazen's district, has been awaiting approval
since 1995. Here in Laredo, Kazen's criminal docket has
increased more than 20 percent over last year.
``We have a docket,'' he said, ``that can be tripled
probably at the drop of a hat. * * * The Border Patrol
people, the Customs people at the [international] bridges
will tell you, they don't catch a tenth of who is going
through. The more checkpoints you man, the more troops you
have at the bridges, will necessarily mean more stops and
more busts.''
And many more arrests are expected, the result of an
unprecedented focus on policing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Earlier this year, Clinton unveiled a $367 million program
for the Southwest for fiscal 1998, beginning Oct. 1, that
includes hiring 500 new Border Patrol agents, 277 inspectors
for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 96 Drug
Enforcement Administration agents and 70 FBI agents.
In Kazen's territory, the number of Border Patrol agents
already has swollen dramatically, from 347 officers assigned
to the Laredo area in fiscal 1993 to 411 officers in
fiscal 1996. More tellingly, in 1993, agents in the Laredo
sector arrested more than 82,000 people on cocaine,
marijuana and illegal immigration charges. By 1996,
arrests had soared to nearly 132,000, according to data
supplied by the INS.
All of which is keeping Kazen and the other judges here
hopping. ``I don't know what the answer is,'' said U.S.
District Judge John Rainey, who has been acting as ``a
circuit rider'' as he tries to keep Kazen out in Laredo from
his post in Victoria, Tex. ``I certainly don't see it easing
up anytime soon. There still seems to be such a demand for
drugs in this country, and that's what causes people to bring
them in. Until society changes, we won't see any changes down
here.''
In a letter to Rep. Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.) in February,
Kazen outlined the need for a new judge in the Laredo or
McAllen division, rather than in Houston, where a vacancy was
recently created when then-Chief Judge Norman Black assumed
senior status. ``The `border' divisions of our court--
Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo--have long borne the burden
of one of the heaviest criminal dockets in the country, and
the processing of criminal cases involves special pressures,
including those generated by the Speedy Trial Act,'' he
wrote.
On a recent typical day, Kazen said, he sentenced six
people on drug charges and listened to an immigration case.
His cases tend to involve marijuana more often than cocaine,
he said.
``The border is a transshipment area,'' he said. ``The fact
is, a huge amount of contraband somehow crosses the Texas-
Mexican border, people walking through where the river is
low, and there are hundreds and hundreds of miles of
unpatrolled ranchland.
``In some cases,'' Kazen continued, ``we're seeing a
difference in the kind of defendant. We're almost never
seeing the big shots--we're seeing the soldiers. Once in a
while, we'll see a little bigger fish, but we're dealing with
very, very smart people. We see some mom-and-pop stuff, too.
There was a guy who came before me who had been in the Army
umpteen years, and he needed the money, he was going
bankrupt, so he did this 600-pound marijuana deal. He said he
stood to pick up $50,000, and now he's facing five to 40
years.
``We see kids 18 and 19 years old,'' Kazen said. ``We see
pregnant women. We see disabled people in wheel-chairs. This
is very, very tempting stuff.'' In Washington, the argument
over court vacancies continues. On April 30, Attorney General
Janet Reno told the Judiciary Committee, ``Chief judges are
calling my staff to report the prospect of canceling court
sittings and suspending civil calendars for lack of judges,
and to ask when they can expect help. This committee must act
now to send this desperately needed help.''
In remarks yesterday to the Federal Judges Association
meeting in Washington, Reno warned that ``the number [of
vacancies] is growing.''
``As you are no doubt aware,'' Reno told the judges, ``the
level of contentiousness on the issue of filling judicial
vacancies has unfortunately increased in recent times.''
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