[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S15069]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE 106TH CONGRESS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as the Senate concludes this first session 
of the 106th Congress, I want to take a moment to thank Senator Lott, 
the majority leader, and Senator Hatch, the chairman of the Senate 
Judiciary Committee, for working with us to confirm some of the judges 
desperately needed around the country.
  Senator Hatch has pressed forward with three confirmation hearings 
since October 5, in the last five weeks of this session to bring the 
total number of hearings to seven for the year. Those hearings allowed 
for 12 additional judicial nominees to be reported to the Senate 
calendar and another two being ready for action by the committee. 
Senator Hatch supported all but one of the nominees voted upon by the 
Senate this year and worked hard to clear judicial nominees reported by 
the committee for action by the Senate.
  I thank the majority leader for working with me and Senator Daschle, 
our Democratic leader, to find a way to consider each of the judicial 
nominations reported to the Senate by the Judiciary Committee. In early 
October he committed to working with us and last week he announced that 
he would press forward for votes on the nominations of Judge Richard 
Paez and Marsha Berzon by March 15 and on the other nominations left 
pending on the Senate Executive Calendar, as well. With his assurance, 
Senator Boxer was willing to proceed immediately to consider a 
nomination important to the Senator from Mississippi. I want to commend 
Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein for their efforts on behalf of both 
Judge Paez and Ms. Berzon. With their support these nominees are each 
now headed toward final confirmation votes.
  For the year, the senate confirmed 33 federal judges to the District 
Courts and Courts of Appeals around the country and to the Court of 
International Trade. The Senate has voted to fill only 33 of the 90 
vacancies that have existed throughout the year, however, and there 
remain 36 judicial nominees still pending before the Senate. Most 
regrettably, the Senate rejected the nomination of Justice Ronnie White 
on an unprecedented part-line vote. Senator Hatch is fond of saying 
that the Senate could do better. I agree with him and hope that we will 
continue to do much better next year.
  I began this year challenging the Senate to maintain that pace it 
established last year when the Senate confirmed 66 judges. I urged the 
Senate to move away from ``the destructive politics of [1996 and 1997] 
in which the Republican Senate confirmed only 17 and 36 judges.'' We 
did not achieve much movement in the first 10 months of this year. It 
is my hope that developments over the last week signal that the Senate 
is finally moving toward recognition of our constitutional duty 
regarding judicial nominations and that we will consider them more 
promptly and fairly in the coming months.
  I note that during the last two years of the Bush Administration, a 
Democratic Senate confirmed 106 federal judges. To reach that total 
this Congress, the Senate next year will need to confirm 73 additional 
judges. That will take commitment and work, but we can achieve it. In 
1994, with a Democratic majority in the Senate, we confirmed 101 
judges, and in 1992, the last year of the Bush Administration, a 
Democratic Senate confirmed 64 federal judges.
  Meanwhile we end this year with more judicial vacancies than existed 
when we adjourned at the end of last year. We have again lost ground in 
our efforts to fill longstanding judicial vacancies that are plaguing 
the federal courts. In 1983 vacancies numbered only 16. Even after the 
creation of 85 new judgeships in 1984, the number of vacancies had been 
reduced to only 33 by the end of the 99th Congress in 1986. At the end 
of the 100th Congress in 1988, which had a Democratic majority and a 
Republican President, judicial vacancies numbered only 23. In 1999 the 
Republican Senate adjourns leaving 57 current vacancies with 10 on the 
horizon.
  Moreover, the Republican Congress has refused to consider the 
authorization of the additional judges needed by the federal judiciary 
to deal with their ever-increasing workload. In 1984 and in 1990, 
Congress did respond to requests for needed judicial resources by the 
Judicial Conference. Indeed, in 1990, a Democratic majority in the 
Congress created judgeships during a Republican presidential 
administration. Two years ago the Judicial Conference of the United 
States requested that an additional 53 judgeships be authorized around 
the country. This year the Judicial Conference renewed its request but 
increased it to 72 judgeships needing to be authorized around the 
country. If Congress had passed the Federal Judgeship Act of 1999, S. 
1145, as it should have, the federal judiciary would have 130 vacancies 
today. That is the more accurate measure of the needs of the federal 
judiciary that have been ignored by the Congress over the past several 
years.
  More and more of the vacancies are judicial emergencies that have 
been left vacant for longer periods of time. The President has sent the 
Senate qualified nominees for 15 of the current judicial emergency 
vacancies, which nominations remain pending as the Senate adjourns for 
the year.
  Most troubling is the circuit emergency that had to be declared three 
months ago by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth 
Circuit. That is a situation that we should have confronted by 
expediting consideration of the nominations of Alston Johnson and 
Enrique Moreno this year. I hope that the Senate will consider them 
both promptly in the early part of next year. In the meantime, I regret 
that the Senate is adjourning and leaving the Fifth Circuit to deal 
with the crisis in the federal administration of justice in Texas, 
Louisiana and Mississippi as best it can but without the resources that 
it desperately needs.

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