[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 30, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7900-S7901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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NOMINATION OF Keith P. Ellison, of Texas, to be United States District
Judge for the Southern District of Texas.
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NOMINATION OF Gary Allen Feess, of California, to be United States
District Judge for the Central District of California.
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NOMINATION OF Stefan R. Underhill, of Connecticut, to be United States
District Judge for the District of Connecticut.
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NOMINATION OF W. Allen Pepper, Jr., of Mississippi, to be United States
District Judge for the Northern District of Mississippi.
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NOMINATION OF Karen E. Schreier, of South Dakota, to be United States
District Judge for the District of South Dakota.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and
consent to the nominations?
On this question the yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk
will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Voinovich)
and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Mack) are necessarily absent.
The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 4, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 190 Ex.]
YEAS--94
Abraham
Akaka
Allard
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bryan
Bunning
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Cleland
Cochran
Collins
Conrad
Coverdell
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Edwards
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Frist
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hollings
Hutchinson
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Reed
Reid
Robb
Roberts
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith (OR)
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Torricelli
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden
NAYS--4
Burns
Enzi
Helms
Smith (NH)
NOT VOTING--2
Mack
Voinovich
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the ayes are 94, the nays are 4.
The Senate does hereby advise and consent to the nominations of Keith
B. Ellison of Texas, Gary Allen Feess of California, Stefan R.
Underhill of Connecticut, W. Allen Pepper, Jr. of Mississippi, and
Karen E. Schreier of South Dakota.
The President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I am encouraged that the Senate confirmed
five of the judicial nominees from the 45 pending before us. I am glad
that the District Courts in Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas,
Connecticut, and California will soon have additional judicial
resources. I only wish that were true for the 69 other vacancies around
the country.
In particular, I look forward to the Committee finally approving the
nomination of Marsha Berzon to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this
week and would ask the Majority Leader to take up that long-delayed
nomination with the same expedition that is being. Fully one-quarter of
the active judgeships authorized for that Court remain vacant, as they
have been for several years. The Judicial Conference recently requested
that Ninth Circuit judgeships be increased in light of its workload by
an additional five judges. That means that while Ms. Berzon's
nomination has been pending, and five other nominations are pending to
the Ninth Circuit, that Court has been forced to struggle through its
extraordinary workload with 12 fewer judges than it needs.
Marsha Berzon is an outstanding nominee. By all accounts, she is an
exceptional lawyer with extensive appellate experience, including a
number of cases heard by the Supreme Court. She has the strong support
of both California Senators and a well-qualified rating from the
American Bar Association.
She was initially nominated in January 1998, almost 17 months ago.
She participated in an extensive two-part confirmation hearing before
the Committee back on July 30, 1998. Thereafter she received a number
of sets of written questions from a number of Senators and responded in
August. A second round of written questions was sent and she responded
by the middle of September. Despite the efforts of Senator Feinstein,
Senator Kennedy, Senator Specter and myself to have her considered by
the Committee, she was not included on an agenda and not voted on
during all of 1998. Her nomination was returned to the President
without action by this Committee or the Senate in late October.
This year the President renominated Ms. Berzon in January. She
participated in her second confirmation hearing two weeks ago, was sent
additional sets of written questions, responded and got and answered
another question. I do not know why these questions were not asked last
year. I do hope that the Committee will vote to report her nomination
to the Senate on Thursday and that the Senate will finally, at long
last, take the opportunity to confirm her to the federal bench.
The saga of this brilliant lawyer and good person is a long one, but
it is not an isolated story. Hers is not even the longest pending
nomination. That distinction belongs to Judge Richard Paez who was
initially nominated in January 1996--over three and one half years
ago--favorably reported by this Committee last year but not voted upon
by the Senate. He was renominated in January, as well. His nomination
is in limbo before the Senate Judiciary Committee, more than three
years after this fine Hispanic judge was first nominated by the
President.
In addition, there is the nomination of Justice Ronnie L. White to
the federal court in Missouri, a nomination I spoke to the Senate about
earlier this week. This past weekend marked the 2-year anniversary of
the nomination of this outstanding jurist to what is now a judicial
emergency vacancy on the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of
Missouri. He is currently a member of the Missouri Supreme Court.
He was nominated by President Clinton in June of 1997, 2 years ago.
It took 11 months before the Senate would even allow him to have a
confirmation hearing. His nomination was then reported favorably on a
13 to 3 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 21, 1998.
Senators Hatch, Thurmond, Grassley, Specter, Kyl, and DeWine were the
Republican members of the Committee who voted for him along with the
Democratic members. Senators Ashcroft, Abraham and Sessions voted
against him.
[[Page S7901]]
Even though he had been voted out overwhelmingly, he sat on the
calendar, and the nomination was returned to the President after 16
months with no action.
The President has again renominated him. I have called again upon the
Senate Judiciary Committee to act on this qualified nomination. Justice
White deserves better than benign neglect. The people in Missouri
deserve a fully qualified and fully staffed Federal bench.
Justice White has one of the finest records--and the experience and
standing--of any lawyer that has come before the Judiciary Committee.
He has served in the Missouri legislature, the office of the city
counselor for the City of St. Louis, and he was a judge in the Missouri
Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of Missouri before his
current service as the first African American ever to serve on the
Missouri Supreme Court.
Having been voted out of Committee by a 4-1 margin, having waited for
2 years, this distinguished African American at least deserves a vote,
up or down. Senators can stand up and say they will vote for or against
him, but let this man have his vote.
Twenty-four months after being nominated and after being renominated
five months ago, the nomination remains pending without action before
the Senate Judiciary Committee. People like Justice Ronnie L. White
deserve to have their nominations treated with dignity and dispatch.
Twenty-four months is far too long to have to wait for Senate action.
The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court wrote in his
Year-End Report in 1997: ``Some current nominees have been waiting a
considerable time for a Senate Judiciary Committee vote or a final
floor vote. The Senate confirmed only 17 judges in 1996 and 36 in 1997,
well under the 101 judges it confirmed in 1994.'' He went on to note:
``The Senate is surely under no obligation to confirm any particular
nominee, but after the necessary time for inquiry it should vote him up
or vote him down.''
For the last several years I have been urging the Judiciary Committee
and the Senate to proceed to consider and confirm judicial nominees
more promptly and without the years of delay that now accompany so many
nominations. I hope the Committee will not delay any longer in
reporting the nomination of Justice Ronnie L. White to the United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and that the
Senate will finally act on the nomination of this fine African-American
jurist.
In explaining why he chose to withdraw from consideration after
waiting 15 months for Senate consideration, another minority nominee,
Jorge Rangel, wrote to the President and explained:
``Our judicial system depends on men and women of good will who agree
to serve when asked to do so. But public service asks too much when
those of us who answer the call to service are subjected to a
confirmation process dominated by interminable delays and inaction.
Patience has its virtues, but it also has its limits''.
Justice White has been exceedingly patient. He remains one of the 10
longest-pending judicial nominations before the Senate, along with
Judge Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon.
Acting to fill judicial vacancies is a constitutional duty that the
Senate--and all of its members--are obligated to fulfill. In its
unprecedented slowdown in the handling of nominees since the 104th
Congress, the Senate is shirking its duty. That is wrong and should
end.
As the Senate recesses for the Independence Day holiday, I am glad to
see that the Senate is taking a few small steps toward responsible
action by confirming five qualified District Court nominees. I will
continue to work to see that the scores of remaining nominees be
treated fairly.
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