[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 152 (Tuesday, November 6, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11483-S11486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 Vote on Nomination of Stephen P. Friot

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question now is on the confirmation of the 
nomination of Stephen P. Friot to be United States District Judge for 
the Western District of Oklahoma.
  The yeas and nays have been ordered.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. 
Torricelli) is necessarily absent.
  Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Allen) is 
necessarily absent.
  The result was announced--yeas 98, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 327 Ex.]

                                YEAS--98

     Akaka
     Allard
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Cantwell
     Carnahan
     Carper
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Clinton
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Craig
     Crapo
     Daschle
     Dayton
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Allen
     Torricelli
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to 
lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I am pleased that the Senate today has 
confirmed Stephen P. Friot, an outstanding individual and a superb 
attorney, to be U.S. District Court Judge for Oklahoma's Western 
District.
  President Bush could not have chosen a finer individual to serve our 
country as a district court judge. Steve Friot is exceptionally well 
qualified and will prove to be a great asset to the judicial system in 
Oklahoma and our country.
  Steve graduated from the University of Oklahoma School of Law in 1972 
and upon his graduation went to work for the firm that now bears his 
name, Spradling, Alpern, Friot & Gum. While focusing his practice on 
corporate, tort defense and aviation litigation, Steve has shown a 
strong commitment to equal justice for all. He has continually strived 
to include pro bono cases in his practice.
  Steve has been actively involved in the Oklahoma legal community. He 
has been very active in the Oklahoma Bar Association serving several 
times as a member of the Association's House of Delegates. He has also 
served as chairman of the association's committees on Legal 
Specialization and Administration of Justice. Steve served as president 
of the Oklahoma County Bar Association and is the current president of 
the Ruth Bader Ginsburg American Inn of Court. He is described by 
colleagues as being a ``competent, honorable individual who possesses 
the judicial temperament and intellect we all want on the Federal 
bench.'' His colleagues know him as an extremely hard worker with the 
highest ethical standards.
  Steve's commitment to his community is hardly limited to the legal 
profession. He has been very active in the Boy Scouts of America where 
he currently serves as Assistant Scoutmaster for Troop 4. Steve has 
also worked diligently for the Central Oklahoma Habitat for Humanity 
where he currently serves as vice chairman of the board of directors. 
In 1995, Gov. Frank Keating appointed Steve to serve on the Board of 
Trustees of the Oklahoma Housing Financing Authority. Steve currently 
serves as vice chairman of the board which assures that the agency is 
serving Oklahomans in need of affordable housing.
  Steve and his wife Nancy, a dedicated kindergarten teacher, have been 
married for more than 25 years. They are particularly proud of their 
son Andy whose early involvement in the Boy Scouts encouraged Steve's 
commitment to that organization. Andy is in the Air Force ROTC at Le 
Moyne College in Syracuse, NY. His dedication to his country is in no 
doubt a reflection of his parents who have shown a strong sense of 
community with a commitment to serving the public good in Oklahoma.
  I congratulate Steve and his family on his having earned the position 
for which President Bush has selected him. I thank Chairman Leahy and 
Senator Hatch, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, for their 
work on Steve Friot's nomination. I applaud the Senate for confirming 
him. He will make an outstanding judge who will work diligently to 
administer justice in the Western District of Oklahoma.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, the Senate has had both the honor and the 
pleasure of considering the nominations of several extremely well-
qualified individuals to serve as Federal judges.
  Although I was unable to be here due to an unavoidable scheduling 
conflict, I am pleased that last night the Senate confirmed Larry R. 
Hicks to be a Federal district judge for the District of Nevada. He 
earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Nevada at Reno and a 
law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law before going 
to work in 1968 as a Deputy District Attorney in Washoe county, NV. 
Three years later, he became the Chief Criminal Deputy District 
Attorney. In 1975, Mr. Hicks was elected the District Attorney for 
Washoe County, where he gained extensive experience in litigating 
murder, robbery, and other major felony trials. He remained in that 
position until 1979. Since that time, Mr. Hicks has been a partner in a 
private law firm in Reno. He has been chairman of the firm's litigation 
section since 1985. Mr. Hicks has also served as a settlement judge 
since 1998 for the Nevada Supreme Court. He has compiled an excellent 
track record, having successfully achieved settlement in all but 5 of 
the 40 cases assigned to him.
  I am also please that Christina Armijo was confirmed today to be a 
Federal district judge for the District of New Mexico. She earned both 
her Bachelor of Arts degree and her Juris Doctor degree from the 
University of New Mexico. After 3 years of practicing law for Sandoval 
County Legal Services, she started her own private practice in her 
hometown of Las Vegas, NM. Her practice consisted not only of general 
civil and administrative law, but also included long-term contracts to 
defend felony criminal cases as a public defender, litigate child abuse 
cases on behalf of New Mexico, and serve as a Due Process Hearing 
Officer for the state Department of Education. After 18 years of 
private practice, Judge Armijo was appointed to serve on the New Mexico 
Court of Appeals in early 1996. She was elected to a full 8-year term 
later that year. In her almost 6 years on the bench, none of her 
decisions has been reversed.
  We now have the opportunity to consider the nomination of Karon Owen 
Bowdre to be a Federal district judge for the Northern District of 
Alabama. She received her bachelor's degree cum laude from Samford 
University and graduated cum laude from the Cumberland School of Law in 
1981, where she was associate editor of the Cumberland Law Review and a 
member of the Moot Court Board. After graduation from law school, 
Professor Bowdre served as judicial law clerk in the United States 
District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and then practiced 
with a private law firm in Birmingham, AL. She handled numerous trials 
in State and Federal court, primarily involving insurance, product 
liability, medical malpractice, fraud and bad faith, and discrimination 
cases. Since 1990, Professor Bowdre has taught at the Cumberland School 
of Law at Samford University.
  We are also considering the nomination of Stephen P. Friot to serve 
on the Federal bench in the Western District

[[Page S11485]]

of Oklahoma. While attending the University of Oklahoma College of Law, 
Mr. Friot was a member of the Order of the Barrister, and was the 
recipient of the Law Day Moot Court Award and the United States Law 
Week Award. Upon graduation in 1972, he joined a private law firm, and 
has spent the past 29 years practicing civil trial and appellate law in 
Oklahoma City. In the last 10 years, Mr. Friot has tried cases 
involving employment law, product liability, aviation product 
liability, title insurance, slander of title, interference with 
contract rights, ground water pollution, real property covenants, 
insurance marketing practices, partnership law, and healthcare law. He 
has been listed as one of the ``Best Lawyers in America'' for Business 
Litigation since 1989.
  I have every confidence that these nominees will serve the United 
States with honor and distinction. I want to thank Senator Leahy for 
moving their nominations, and Senator Schumer for chairing their 
confirmation hearing. I fully support the nominations of these 
candidates, and urge my colleagues to do so as well.
  I must note, however, that one nominee for the Federal appellate 
court, Edith Brown Clement, had her hearing before these nominees, on 
October 4, and was voted out of committee on the same date as these 
nominees. She is exceedingly well-qualified for the Fifth Circuit, 
having served as a Federal district court judge for the past decade. I 
look forward to the Senate's prompt consideration of her nomination as 
well.
  I must also note that at least one committee member submitted written 
questions to these nominees on October 30, a mere 2 days before the 
committee was scheduled to consider their nominations. Another 
committee member waited until November 1 to submit questions to one of 
these nominees. This was nearly one month after the nominee's October 4 
confirmation hearing, and despite the fact that it was announced at her 
hearing that the record would remain open for only 1 week. I am 
concerned that the practice of submitting additional questions to 
nominees long after their confirmation hearings is becoming a tool to 
delay consideration of their nominations. I urge my colleagues to give 
these nominees a fair shot at confirmation by submitting their 
questions in a timely fashion.
  I would also like to respond to remarks made yesterday regarding the 
Senate's pace of confirming judges. The short answer is that the 
confirmation of 16 judges when there are 102 vacancies in the Federal 
judiciary is nothing to brag about. And despite the fact that the 
Senate has confirmed only 4 Federal appellate court judges this year, 
the Judiciary Committee refuses to hold any more hearings on appellate 
court nominees. This pace pales in comparison when you consider that we 
held hearings on 14 appellate nominees in 1998, 12 appellate nominees 
in 1995, and 10 appellate nominees in 1999.
  Another point that was made yesterday was the number of nominees 
whose paperwork was not complete. By my count, the ABA has not 
submitted ratings on 11 pending nominees. Five of these nominations 
have been pending for more than 8 weeks. Another has been pending more 
than 6 weeks. This is despite the ABA's pledge to submit its ratings 
within 35 days at the least. It seems to me that even if the Democratic 
members of the Judiciary Committee are willing to give the ABA a 
preferential role in evaluating judicial nominees, even where the 
Constitution does not, they should not allow the ABA to hold judges 
hostage by failing to submit timely ratings.
  In sum, we need to take a hard look at the number of judges we have 
confirmed in light of the astronomical number of vacancies on the 
Federal judiciary, and judge our progress on confirmations by that 
standard. The fact remains that the pace of vacancies has exceeded the 
pace of judicial confirmations. We in the Senate must do our part to 
address the real and serious vacancy crisis that threatens to clog our 
nation's Federal courts and deny the administration of justice to 
American citizens. We can only do this by speeding up the pace of 
confirmations before the end of this session.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today the Senate confirmed M. Christina 
Armijo of New Mexico to be a United States District Judge for the 
District of New Mexico. We now have the opportunity to act on the 
nominations of two additional judicial nominees. When we vote to 
confirm Karon Bowdre of Alabama and Stephen Friot of Oklahoma, the 
Senate will have confirmed 16 judges since July 20 of this year. When 
we confirm these District Court nominees, the Senate will have 
confirmed more District Court judges this year than were confirmed in 
the entire first year of the first Bush administration in 1989.
  In addition to our work on the antiterrorism legislation since 
September 11, the Senate Judiciary Committee has persevered in the wake 
of the terrible events of September 11 and will by tomorrow have held 5 
hearings for 21 judicial nominees.
  Within 2 days of the terrible events of September 11, I chaired a 
confirmation hearing for the two judicial nominees who were able to 
drive to Washington while interstate air travel was still disrupted.
  At our committee meeting on October 4, 2001, we reported those two 
judicial nominees and held another confirmation hearing on five 
judicial nominees that same day.
  On October 18, 2001, in spite of the closure of Senate office 
buildings in the wake of the receipt of a letter containing anthrax 
spores and Senate staff and employees testing positive for anthrax 
exposure, the Committee proceeded with its previously scheduled 
business meeting under extraordinary circumstances in the United States 
Capitol and reported four judicial nominees favorably to the Senate. On 
that same day, despite the unavailability of the Judiciary Committee 
hearing room and the closure of Senators' offices, we proceeded with 
another confirmation hearing for an additional five judicial nominees.
  Two weeks ago, while the Senate Republicans were shutting down the 
Senate with a filibuster preventing action on the bill that funds our 
nation's foreign policy initiatives and provides funds to help build 
the international coalition against terrorism, the Judiciary Committee 
nonetheless proceeded with yet another hearing for four more judicial 
nominees on October 25, 2001, our third hearing involving judicial 
nominees in October.
  Tomorrow morning we are holding another hearing for five more 
judicial nominations.
  The facts are that since the committee was assigned its members on 
July 10, 2001, the committee will have held nine hearing involving 28 
judicial nominees. By tonight the Senate will have already confirmed 16 
judges, including four to the Courts of Appeals. These numbers show 
that there have been more hearings for more nominees, more 
confirmations of more judges to the District Courts, and more 
confirmations of more judges to the Courts of Appeals this year than by 
the same date in either the first year of the first Bush administration 
or the first year of the Clinton administration. The facts are that the 
Judiciary Committee and the Senate are ahead of the confirmation pace 
for judicial nominees in the first year of the first Bush 
administration or the first year of the Clinton administration.
  I know that Karon Bowdre has the strong support of the senior Senator 
from Alabama who came to introduce her at her hearing. I am told that 
Senator Sessions came to the floor earlier today to speak in support of 
this nomination. I recall that the senior Senator from Oklahoma came to 
the hearing to speak in favor of Stephen Friot and that he has the 
support of Senator Inhofe, as well.
  Both these nominees were among those District Court nominations sent 
to the Senate just before the August recess. They had to be returned to 
the White House without action when the Republican leader objected to 
retaining them here over the recess. They were nominated in early 
September and the Committee received their ABA peer review ratings in 
early October. They were then scheduled to participate in a hearing on 
October 18, considered by the committee at last week's business meeting 
and are being confirmed today, November 6, which is approximately 1 
month after receiving the ABA ratings.
  I congratulate the nominees and their families on these 
confirmations.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

[[Page S11486]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________