[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 29 (Wednesday, February 24, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S1928]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SARBANES (for himself and Ms. Mikulski):
  S. 454. A bill to amend title 28, United States Code, to authorize 
the appointment of additional bankruptcy judges for the judicial 
district of Maryland, to the Committee on the Judiciary.


           BANKRUPTCY JUDGESHIPS FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND

 Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I rise today on behalf of myself 
and my colleague from Maryland, Senator Mikulski, to introduce 
legislation that is absolutely critical to the administration of 
justice and the economy in our State of Maryland. This legislation 
provides for four additional bankruptcy judges for the federal judicial 
District of Maryland.
  This bill represents only the most recent of our efforts to 
strengthen Maryland's federal bankruptcy court. Early in the 105th 
Congress, we introduced legislation adding two additional bankruptcy 
judges for the District of Maryland, in line with the then-pending 
request of the Judicial Conference. The House of Representatives 
followed suit in summer 1997, passing legislation that authorized these 
two judges, in addition to other new bankruptcy judgeships throughout 
the country. Last year, the Senate overwhelmingly passed bankruptcy 
reform legislation that, among other things, authorized these two 
judgeships, though under the Senate bill the judges were of temporary, 
rather than permanent, status. This legislation ultimately was not 
enacted into law, however, and with such inaction the problem facing 
Maryland's sitting bankruptcy judges has only grown. Maryland remains 
without the additional judgeships it so desperately needs to make our 
bankruptcy system work.
  Our State's need for additional bankruptcy judges has long since 
passed the critical stage. Since November 1993, when Maryland last 
received an additional bankruptcy judge, the number of bankruptcy 
filings in the State has more than doubled. While the entire nation has 
witnessed a surge in bankruptcy filings over the past several years, 
the increase in Maryland has dwarfed the national average increase. 
Bankruptcy filings in Maryland in the second quarter of 1998 grew at 
eight times the national rate of increase for that period; for the 12-
month period ending June 30, 1998, the rate of increase in Maryland was 
the tenth greatest of the 90 federal judicial districts in the Nation. 
The District of Maryland ranks first among federal judicial districts 
in filings per judge. As noted earlier, each House of Congress 
authorized two additional bankruptcy judges for Maryland during the 
105th Congress. Simply put, however, the problem has outpaced this 
solution.
  The need for the four additional judgeships sought in this 
legislation becomes even more evident when one considers it in the 
context of the case-weighting system adopted by the Judicial Conference 
in 1991 to assess requests for additional bankruptcy judges. Under this 
system, different types of bankruptcy cases are assigned different 
degrees of difficulty and overall weighted case-hour goals are 
established for the judges.
  The Judicial Conference begins to consider requests for additional 
judges when a district's per-judge weighted caseload reaches 1500 
hours. The average United States Bankruptcy Judge had a weighted case-
hour load of 1429 hours per year for the 12-month period ending June 
30, 1998. For that same period, Maryland's bankruptcy judges averaged a 
weighted case-hour load of 3020 hours--an astounding 211 percent of the 
national average. Not only do the Maryland figures dwarf the national 
average; they also dwarf the prior Maryland figures which led to 
legislation passed by each Houses of Congress authorizing additional 
judgeships. Indeed, Maryland's overall weighted case load for the 12-
month period ending June 30, 1998, represented a 25% increase over its 
load for the prior 12-month period alone.
  I ask my colleagues to consider these telling statistics:
  If Maryland were to receive two additional judgeships tomorrow, its 
per-judge weighted caseload would still be 2013 hours--41 percent 
greater than the national average last year, and 34 percent greater 
than the 1500-hour benchmark used by the Judicial Conference to 
evaluate requests for additional judgeships.
  If Maryland were to receive three additional judgeships tomorrow, its 
per-judge weighted caseload would still be 1725 hours--21 percent more 
than the national average, and 15 percent greater than the Judicial 
Conference benchmark.
  Only if Maryland were to receive four additional judgeships, as 
requested in this bill, would the per-judge caseload in Maryland 
approximate the national average. And even then each Maryland judge 
would have a caseload of 1510 case-weighted hours--still above the 
1429-hour national average, and still above the 1500-hour Judicial 
Conference benchmark.
  The additional judgeships sought in this bill are essential not only 
for effective judicial administration, but also for Maryland's economy. 
Bankruptcy laws foster orderly, constructive relationships between 
debtors and creditors during times of economic difficulty. Their 
effective and expeditious implementation results in businesses being 
reorganized, jobs (provided by creditors and debtors) preserved, and 
debts managed fairly. Overworked bankruptcy courts have a destabilizing 
effect on this system, and the inevitable delays occasioned by the lack 
of judges harm creditors and debtors, imperiling Maryland's businesses 
and the people they employ.
  It is expected that bankruptcy reform legislation will be one of the 
first items on the Senate's agenda now that it has resumed legislative 
business. Adding judgeships in Maryland's and other bankruptcy courts 
in need of relief is an essential component of any such reform, given 
that the legislation we are contemplating will not only not ease the 
burdens on these courts, but in fact will increase these burdens by 
imposing new responsibilities on our nation's bankruptcy judges. And 
even if comprehensive bankruptcy reform fails or is delayed, the 
current state of affairs facing Maryland's bankruptcy court requires 
immediate action in the form of adding judges to that court.
  In closing let me once again commend the efforts of Maryland's four 
sitting bankruptcy judges--Chief Judge Paul Mannes and Judges Duncan 
Keir, James Schneider, and Steve Derby. Their dedication to the 
administration of justice is especially impressive given the 
extraordinary burdens placed on them--burdens which the Senate ought to 
ease at the earliest possible instance.
                                 ______