[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 128 (Wednesday, September 17, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11621-S11623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF SANDRA J. FEUERSTEIN TO BE U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE
EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination of Sandra
J. Feuerstein.
The legislative clerk read the nomination of Sandra J. Feuerstein, of
New York, to be U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New
York.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. There are two minutes of debate equally
divided on the nomination. Who yields time?
The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I yield to the senior Senator from New
York. These next four nominees come here with bipartisan support. As a
result, they went through very quickly.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, this is the first of four nominees from
New York. They are all very qualified, fine people.
The only point I wish to make is that the administration and the
Governor worked closely with the Senate and with me and Senator Clinton
on these nominations. I think it shows, when there is cooperation, when
there is true advice as part of the advise and consent process, we can
come up with excellent nominees.
Each one of the nominees meets the criteria I believe we should have
in every Federal judge--legal excellence, moderation, not too far left,
not too far right, and diversity.
I will speak once because there are four of them, but I am proud to
be here to vote for every one of the four nominees.
Again, if we get cooperation, we can do this without acrimony,
without partisanship. That is what has happened in New York.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, I yield back the remainder of my time
and ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
Mr. HATCH. Madam President, I rise today to express my unqualified
support for the nomination of Sandra Feuerstein to the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of New York, and to urge my colleagues
to confirm this fine nominee.
Justice Feuerstein has excellent academic and professional
qualifications for the Federal bench. After her graduation from Cardozo
Law School, she joined the clerk pool of the New York Supreme Court Law
Department. In 1985, she was chosen to clerk for Justice Leo H.
McGinity, an administrative judge in the New York State Supreme Court.
In 1987, she joined the bench of the Nassau County District Court. In
1994, Justice Feuerstein became a Justice of the New York State
Superior Court, where she would remain for the next five years. Since
1999, she has been a Justice on the New York State Appellate Division--
New York's highest State court.
In addition to her proven bench experience, Justice Feuerstein is a
highly recognized public figure. She has lent her extensive talents to
the Nassau County Bar, various pro bono programs that she has founded
or chaired, and many charitable organizations like the American Cancer
Society. In the last decade, Justice Feuerstein has been the recipient
of such awards as: Judge of the Year twice, Woman of the Year, Pro Bono
Recognition Award, and Outstanding Committee Chairperson of the Year
Award, to name a few. Earlier in her career, Justice Feuerstein was
both an associated editor and editor of the Nassau Lawyer. In addition
to her professional, charitable and publishing duties, she has been an
adjunct professor at Hofstra University Law School since 1998.
Justice Feuerstein possesses the qualifications, the capacity, and
the temperament a judge needs to serve on the federal bench. I am
pleased to support this stellar nominee.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, prior to the start of the vote, I know
there are a number of Senators concerned about the schedule, given the
conditions. I ask the distinguished Senator from Vermont, the ranking
member of the Judiciary Committee, what his intentions would be with
regard to additional rollcall votes. We anticipated taking up five
nominations this afternoon. I have been consulting with him, and I
really appreciate, as always, his cooperation on this matter.
I ask if he has any intention of seeking rollcall votes on the other
nominees who are currently pending?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, if I may respond to my friend from South
Dakota, I assured the distinguished Senators from New York and the
distinguished Senators from Alabama that we would have support on the
Alabama judge, which we just voted on, and the next one is from New
York, and we would get them confirmed.
I have been asked by a number of Senators, both Republicans and
Democrats, because of the weather, if there is a possibility to just
have this next rollcall vote and do the remaining three by voice vote.
I would have no objection. Would that be the last vote of the day?
Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, I do not think the leader is prepared
to say that yet.
Mr. LEAHY. If we are going to have more votes, we might as well go
ahead.
Mr. SANTORUM. I don't know. We will discuss it with the leader.
Mr. LEAHY. Why don't we go forward with this vote. If the decision is
made that there will be no further rollcall votes while we are voting
on this next
[[Page S11622]]
nomination, then I will not ask for rollcall votes on the remaining
three nominations.
Mr. REID. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. LEAHY. The Senator from South Dakota has the floor.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I will consult with the majority leader
with regard to his intention for additional rollcall votes, and we can
continue our discussion following this vote. I think we ought to
proceed with the vote.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, if the distinguished Democratic leader
and the distinguished Republican leader do not intend to have any more
rollcall votes, I certainly am not going to ask for any more rollcall
votes on the remaining judges.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and
consent to the nomination of Sandra J. Feuerstein, of New York, to be
United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York? The
yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. I announce that the Senator from Utah (Mr. Hatch) is
necessarily absent.
I further announce that the Senator from Oregon (Mr. Smith) is absent
because of a death in the family.
I further announce that if present and voting the Senator from Utah
(Mr. Hatch) would vote ``yea''.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from North Carolina (Mr.
Edwards), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Graham), the Senator from South
Carolina (Mr. Hollings), the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry),
the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Lieberman), and the Senator from
Georgia (Mr. Miller) are necessarily absent.
I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) would vote ``yea''.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 92, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 353 Ex.]
YEAS--92
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Frist
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Hagel
Harkin
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Santorum
Sarbanes
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Talent
Thomas
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden
NOT VOTING--8
Edwards
Graham (FL)
Hatch
Hollings
Kerry
Lieberman
Miller
Smith
The nomination was confirmed.
Mr. FRIST. Madam President, first of all, congratulations to the
managers of this bill. We are making real progress. We still have a
number of amendments to look at, and discussions are ongoing. Even over
the last several hours, while we have addressed the judges issue and
completed debate and voting on the partial-birth abortion issue, work
on Interior has continued. Overall, we are very pleased.
This is really for the benefit of our colleagues to give them some
idea of what will be happening here on the floor today, tonight,
tomorrow, and over the next several days.
First, we will have no more rollcall votes tonight or tomorrow or
Friday. I start with that because I know that is what my colleagues are
waiting to hear.
Work will continue tonight on the Interior bill. In talking to the
managers, a number of amendments are being considered. Debate will
continue this afternoon and into this evening and tomorrow morning.
We are in constant touch through the Sergeant at Arms and talking to
FEMA about the weather conditions. Any decisions as to how long we will
actually be in session will absolutely be focused on safety first and
foremost. In saying that, we will be in session this afternoon and
tonight, on Interior. We will come in tomorrow morning, and we will
make the announcement when, but probably at 9:30 in the morning. I
doubt that we will be on the floor all day. Again, the weather in part,
the debate on the Interior bill in part, will determine that.
We will not be in session on Friday.
We will have votes on Monday, and likely multiple votes on Monday,
since we are losing the opportunity for rollcall votes on Friday and
Thursday and in part tonight. Business will continue, but it will mean
that we will need to have multiple votes on Monday.
We intend to make progress on Interior, but also would like to set
as, really, the final--final passage on that Tuesday, at some point
Tuesday. That means we have the amendments before us to consider, and
if there are any other amendments, we absolutely must know about those.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I appreciate the announcement of the
schedule by the majority leader. I will say to my colleagues, I have
every expectation that we can complete our work on this bill on
Tuesday. I intend to work with the majority leader to complete our work
on the Interior bill by Tuesday. That will require Senators who have
amendments to come to the floor for the remaining hours of today and
tomorrow morning. I know I have one or two amendments, and I intend to
offer them either today or tomorrow morning in order to allow those
votes to be cast and stacked on Monday night. So there is no reason we
cannot finish our work on this bill on Tuesday, assuming--and the
majority leader has assured me--that we will go to another
appropriations bill once we complete our work on this one.
I would also want to say to my distinguished colleague who was here
just a moment ago, the Senator from Vermont, I am, once again, grateful
for his cooperation. He is a man of his word. He, again, had indicated
to me, on the understanding there would be no more rollcall votes, that
he would be willing to allow the three remaining votes on these judges
today to be taken by voice. So I want to express for the record and
publicly, once again, my gratitude to Senator Leahy for his cooperation
and his understanding of the need for some Senators to catch planes
this afternoon.
I appreciate, again, the majority leader's comments and will work
with him to complete the schedule.
Ms. LANDRIEU. Will the leader yield for a question?
Mr. FRIST. Let me make one further statement and I will be happy to
yield.
Committee hearing decisions are being made today by chairmen. Again,
we are going to be conducting business on the Senate floor. A number of
chairmen called and said: Should we go ahead and cancel our hearings
and committee meetings? That is being left to their discretion.
Individual offices--I know a number are calling the Sergeant at Arms
and calling our offices. We will stay in touch and we will come
straight to the floor if there is any information in terms of safety
that we know about as we go forward.
These five judges are very important. I would add we have six judges
who are also waiting, right now, whose nominations are ready to come to
the floor and to be voted upon. I hope we can do that soon. I would
like to be able, possibly, to do some of those on Monday. We have six
more judges who are ready to go.
I would be happy to yield for a question.
Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I would only say for the record, the
votes today will take us to 151 judges that the Senate has cast votes
on since this administration has come to office--151 district and
circuit court judges. So, obviously, we are making great progress on
those numbers.
For the record, I want to be sure our colleagues are aware of where
we are, where we stand with regard to the number of confirmations.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.
[[Page S11623]]
Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I understand the schedule has the
potential of finishing up on the Interior bill on Tuesday. Does the
leadership have options after Tuesday in terms of what appropriations
bills we might go to after Tuesday?
Mr. FRIST. I will be happy to talk. We have been talking several days
in advance each time. As the Democratic leader said, our intention is
to go to appropriations and stay on appropriations. There is other
business as we worked out to address partial-birth abortion and the
judges. But the intention is to go to an appropriations bill. The
specific one we don't know now. This is Wednesday. We are talking about
a week from now. But we will stay in constant touch.
Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Chair.
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