[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 98 (Friday, July 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S7296]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PENDING NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I noted yesterday my concern that the 
Senate is failing to proceed to confirm the four judicial nominees and 
the nominee to be Deputy Attorney General of the United States. The 
Republican leader had indicated that today he intended to take up the 
nomination of Mr. Holder to be the Deputy Attorney General, the second 
highest ranking official in the Department of Justice. Now it appears 
that the Republican leadership has decided not to proceed to that 
nomination but to hold it hostage to the confirmation of the Acting 
Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust.
  I urge the majority leader to abandon this brinkmanship. There is no 
need to tie up a noncontroversial and consensus nominee for the 
important position of Deputy Attorney General. In my view we could have 
proceeded to that matter before the last recess. In any event, there 
clearly is no justification for tying confirmation of the Deputy to any 
other nominee.
  Likewise, I again urge the Republican leadership to proceed to 
consideration of the four judicial nominees favorably reported by the 
Judiciary Committee over the last 7 weeks. Yesterday, we succeeded in 
reporting three additional judicial nominees. I would hope that we 
could proceed to their confirmations early next week. Confirming those 
7 nominations pending on the executive calendar would literally double 
our production for the first 6 months of this session.
  We are still confirming judges at a rate of less than one judge per 
month. Twenty-three judicial nominees remain pending before the 
Judiciary Committee, some have been bottled up in committee for as long 
as 27 months.

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