[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11206-S11207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE CONFIRMATION OF 98 JUDICIAL NOMINEES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate confirmed the 98th 
judicial nominee of President George W. Bush.
  These past 16 months, since the reorganization of the Senate 
Judiciary Committee following the change in majority last year, have 
been an historic and impressive period in which we have fairly 
considered hundreds of the President's executive and judicial branch 
nominees. Despite partisan rhetoric to the contrary, the Senate has 
done a good job.
  If this Senate had a ``lousy'' record on judicial confirmations, then 
the Republican leadership, which controlled the pace on confirmations 
from 1995 through the first part of 2001, must have been far, far worse 
than ``lousy''. Under Republican control judicial vacancies on the 
Courts of Appeals more than doubled, from 16 to 33, and overall 
vacancies rose from 65 to 110. We have heard no criticism from the 
White House of that period, in which Senate Republicans blocked 
President Clinton's nominees. We have heard no apologies from the 
Republican leadership that engineered those efforts.
  Just last night, in one night, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed 
more judges, 18, including more circuit judges, than the Republican-led 
Senate allowed to be confirmed in the entire 1996 session more in one 
day than Republicans were willing to proceed on for an entire year. 
Seventeen of those judges were the nominations we were able to get 
reported from the Committee on October 8 with some significant effort 
and in spite of Republican efforts to divert the Committee into other 
matters.
  This week the Committee met, again, as I had said it would. We 
considered the nominations of Dennis Shedd and Michael McConnell and 
voted on them as the 101st and 102nd judicial nominations voted on by 
the Committee during the last 16 months and reported them to the 
Senate. One hundred judicial nominations have now been reported 
favorably to the Senate by the Judiciary Committee during the past 16 
months; two were rejected. One indication of the fairness with which we 
have conducted ourselves is that as chairman I have proceeded to 
consider nominations that I do not support and the Committee has 
reported nominations that I do not support to the Senate. As I said 
during this week's Committee consideration of the Shedd nomination, for 
example, having examined his record as a District Court Judge, I intend 
to vote against his nomination to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth 
Circuit.
  With the Senate's actions last night, we have confirmed 98 of this 
President's judicial nominees in only 16 months. This compares most 
favorably to the 38 judicial confirmations averaged per year during the 
six and one-half years when the Republican majority was in control of 
the Senate. Last night, the Senate confirmed another 18 judicial 
nominees. In the entire 1996 session over the course of an entire year, 
the Republican majority allowed only 17 district court judges to be 
confirmed all year and would not confirm a single circuit court 
nominee--not one. Last night, the Democratic-led Senate confirmed all 
17 district court nominees reported to the Senate by the Judiciary 
Committee after our October 8 business session as well as a 6th Circuit 
nominee from Kentucky. The Democratic-led Senate exceeded in one day 
what it took the Republican majority of the Senate an entire year to 
accomplish. That should put our historic demonstration of 
bipartisanship toward this President's judicial nominees in 
perspective.
  The 17 district court nominees confirmed last night were on the 
Senate calendar because, on October 8, the Senate Judiciary Committee 
was able to report those nominations despite unparalleled personal 
attacks by Republicans on me as chairman. The circuit court nominee 
confirmed last night, Professor John Rogers, is the second of this 
President's judicial nominees confirmed to the Sixth Circuit this year. 
They are the first confirmations to the 6th Circuit since 1997, when 
Republicans for four years shut down consideration of President 
Clinton's nominees to that circuit. Three of President Clinton's 
nominees to that court were never allowed a hearing by the Republican 
majority; the Democratic majority has, in contrast, proceeded to 
confirm two new judges to that same circuit court.
  The hard, thankless, but steady work of the Democratic members of the 
Judiciary Committee has reduced judicial vacancies substantially during 
these last 16 months. We inherited 110 vacancies and an additional 49 
have arisen since July 10, 2002. Today, after 98 confirmations, 
district and circuit court vacancies combined number only 60--not the 
more than 150 vacancies that would exist had we shut down the process 
or the 111 vacancies that would exist if we had followed the Republican 
pace of confirmation during the Clinton administration. The President 
has failed to send nominations for almost half of the 60 current 
vacancies on the

[[Page S11207]]

district and circuit courts and only 11 of his remaining nominees have 
both home-State consent and ABA ratings. Despite false attacks on our 
record, the Senate has acted with bipartisanship, fairness and 
expedition on this President's judicial nominees, confirming 98 in just 
16 months. We have reduced judicial vacancies from the 110 we inherited 
to fewer than the 65 vacancies the Republicans began with when they 
took over the Senate in 1995. Unlike the Republican majority that 
allowed judicial vacancies grow, we have outpaced attrition and reduced 
the overall level of vacancies, including the vacancies on the circuit 
courts.

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