[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 9, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9113-S9114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CONFIRMATION OF DAVID CAMPBELL

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, yesterday, the Senate voted to confirm 
David Campbell to a lifetime appointment on the United States District 
Court for the District of Arizona. With this confirmation, we will fill 
the sole vacancy on that court--which is actually not even vacant yet. 
Mr. Campbell is nominated to a new position that will become vacant on 
July 15. I have been glad to work with the Senators from Arizona to 
consider this nominee and provide bipartisan support. I congratulate 
the nominee and his family.
  The Senate has now confirmed 133 judges nominated by President Bush, 
including 26 circuit court judges. One hundred judicial nominees were 
confirmed when Democrats acted as the Senate majority for 17 months 
from the summer of 2001 to adjournment last year. After today, 33 will 
have been confirmed in the other 12 months in which Republicans have 
controlled the confirmation process under President

[[Page S9114]]

Bush. This total of 133 judges confirmed for President Bush is more 
confirmations than the Republicans allowed President Clinton in all of 
1995, 1996 and 1997--the first 3 years they controlled the Senate 
process for President Clinton. In those 3 full years, the Republican 
leadership in the Senate allowed only 111 judicial nominees to be 
confirmed, which included only 18 circuit court judges. We have already 
exceeded that total by 20 percent and the circuit court total by 40 
percent with 6 months remaining to us this year. In truth, we have 
achieved all this in less than 2 years because of the delays in 
organizing and reorganizing the Senate in 2001. The Judiciary Committee 
was not even reassigned until July 10, 2001, so we have now confirmed 
133 judges in less than 2 years.
  In the first half of this year, the 33 confirmations is more than 
Republicans allowed to be confirmed in the entire 1996 session, when 
only 17 district court judges were added to the Federal courts across 
the Nation. In the first half of this year, with 9 circuit court 
confirmations, we have already exceeded the average of seven per year 
achieved by Republican leadership from 1995 through the early part of 
2001. That is more circuit court confirmations in 6 months than 
Republicans allowed confirmed in the entire 1996 session, in which 
there were none confirmed; in all of 1997, when there were 7 confirmed; 
in all of 1999, when there were 7 confirmed; or in all of 2000, when 
there were 8 confirmed. The Senate is moving two to three times faster 
for this President's nominees than for President Clinton's, despite the 
fact that the current appellate court nominees are more controversial, 
divisive and less widely-supported than President Clinton's appellate 
court nominees were.
  The confirmation of David Campbell to the District Court for Arizona 
illustrates the effect of the reforms to the process that the 
Democratic leadership has spearheaded, despite the poor treatment of 
too many Democratic nominees through the practice of anonymous holds 
and other obstructionist tactics employed by some in the preceding 6 
years. David Campbell is the fourth Federal judge confirmed from 
Arizona for President Bush. Under Democratic control, the Senate 
confirmed Judge David Bury, Judge Cindy Jorgenson and Judge Frederick 
Martone to the District Court for the District of Arizona.
  If the Senate did not confirm another judicial nominee all year and 
simply adjourned today, we would have treated President Bush more 
fairly and would have acted on more of his judicial nominees than 
Republicans did for President Clinton in 1995-97 or the period 1996-99. 
In addition, the vacancies on the Federal courts around the country are 
significantly lower than the 80 vacancies Republicans left at the end 
of 1997 or the 110 vacancies that Democrats inherited in the summer of 
2001. We continue well below the 67 vacancy level that Senator Hatch 
used to call ``full employment'' for the Federal judiciary. Indeed we 
have reduced vacancies to their lowest level in the last 13 years. So 
while unemployment has continued to climb for Americans to 6.1 percent 
last month, the Senate has helped lower the vacancy rate in Federal 
courts to a historically low level that we have not witnessed in over a 
decade. Of course, the Senate is not adjourning for the year and the 
Judiciary Committee continues to hold hearings for Bush judicial 
nominees at between two and four times as many as it did for President 
Clinton's.
  For those who are claiming that Democrats are blockading this 
President's judicial nominees, this is another example of how quickly 
and easily the Senate can act when we proceed cooperatively with 
consensus nominees. The Senate's record fairly considered has been 
outstanding--especially when contrasted with the obstruction of 
President Clinton's moderate judicial nominees by Republicans between 
1996 and 2001.
  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, yesterday the Senate voted on 
the nomination of David Campbell to serve as a U.S. District Judge for 
the District of Arizona.
  I was unable to vote because I was returning to Washington, DC from 
official travel to Iraq in connection with my duties as a member of the 
Senate Armed Services Committee.
  Had I been present, I would have supported Mr. Campbell's 
confirmation to the district bench. After reviewing his credentials, I 
believe Mr. Campbell is well prepared to serve in this important 
position and has the proper judicial temperament to fairly and justly 
apply the law.

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