[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 147 (Monday, October 20, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12884-S12885]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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NOMINATION OF MARGARET CATHARINE RODGERS, OF FLORIDA, TO BE UNITED
STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 5:15
p.m. having arrived, the Senate will proceed to executive session to
consider Executive Calendar No. 401, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Nomination of Margaret Catharine Rodgers, of Florida, to be
United States District Judge for the Northern District of
Florida.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
proceed to a vote on the confirmation of the nomination.
Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Margaret Catharine Rodgers, of Florida, to be United States District
Judge for the Northern District of Florida? The clerk will call the
roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. I announce that the Senator from Mississippi (Mr.
Cochran), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from
Tennessee (Mr. Frist), the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Hagel), the
Senator from Texas (Mrs. Hutchison), the Senator from Indiana (Mr.
Lugar), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from
Missouri (Mr. Talent) and the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Warner) are
necessarily absent.
Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), the
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Edwards), the Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry), the Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu),
the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Lautenberg), the Senator from
Connecticut (Mr. Lieberman), the Senator from Maryland (Ms. Mikulski),
the Senator from New York (Mr. Schumer) and the Senator from Oregon
(Mr. Wyden) are necessarily absent.
I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from
Massachusetts (Mr. Kerry) and the Senator from New Jersey (Mr.
Lautenberg) would each vote ``yea''.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 82, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 401 Ex.]
YEAS--82
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Breaux
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Corzine
Craig
Crapo
Daschle
Dayton
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Ensign
Enzi
Feingold
Feinstein
Fitzgerald
Graham (FL)
Graham (SC)
Grassley
Gregg
Harkin
Hatch
Hollings
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kohl
Kyl
Leahy
Levin
Lincoln
Lott
McCain
McConnell
Miller
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Nickles
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Rockefeller
Santorum
Sarbanes
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Sununu
Thomas
Voinovich
NOT VOTING--18
Biden
Cochran
Cornyn
Edwards
Frist
Hagel
Hutchison
Kerry
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Lieberman
Lugar
Mikulski
Murkowski
Schumer
Talent
Warner
Wyden
The nomination was confirmed.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I am pleased today to speak in support of
Margaret Catharine Rodgers, who has been confirmed to the United States
District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
Judge Rodgers has had an impressive legal career. After graduating
magna cum laude from California Western School of Law, she clerked for
Judge Lacey Collier on the U.S. District Court for the Northern
District of Florida. She then entered private practice with the
Pensacola law firm of Clark, Partington & Hart as an associate. After 4
years, she went to work for the West Florida Medical Center Clinic as
its general counsel and director of human resources. She then returned
to private practice, where her areas of expertise focused on medical
liability and employment law. Last year she was appointed as a Federal
magistrate judge in the Northern District of Florida, which reflects
the high regard in which the judges of that court hold her.
I am confident that Judge Rodgers will continue to serve with
compassion, integrity, and fairness as a Federal district court judge.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, the selection of Margaret Catharine Rodgers
to be the nominee for the Northern District of Florida serves as an
example of how the judicial nominations process should work. Judge
Rodgers was interviewed and recommended by Florida's bipartisan
judicial selection commission. This selection commission was created by
Senators Graham and Nelson in negotiated agreement with the White House
and it has produced a consistent stream of talented and well-respected
attorneys for the lifetime appointments on the district courts in
Florida.
[[Page S12885]]
Judge Rodgers currently serves the Northern District of Florida as a
magistrate judge. She received a ``well qualified'' rating from the
American Bar Association, having proven her qualifications in the
district in which she will serve, on the bench, in private practice,
and in her community. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Judge Rodgers served
for several years in the United States Army and received several
commendations for her service.
With tonight's vote on Judge Rodgers' nomination, the Senate will
have confirmed a total of 165 judicial nominations of President George
W. Bush. Despite all of the false charges of obstruction leveled by the
White House and Republican Senators, we have now reached a historic
level of confirmations of judicial nominations.
In less than 3 years, President Bush has now equaled the total number
of judges appointed by President Reagan in his first 4 full years in
office. Republicans tout President Reagan as the ``all-time champ'' in
judicial appointments and yet he attained 165 confirmations at the
conclusion of his first 4-year term in office, while President Bush has
achieved the same benchmark in less than 3 years in office. President
Reagan's entire first term saw a Republican Senate majority enabling
the President to achieve that milestone. That Democrats in the Senate
have cooperated with President Bush to exceed it is extraordinary and
reveals the truth about the confirmation process. Only a few of the
most extreme of President Bush's judicial nominees have been blocked.
Of course, you will not hear Republican Senators or the White House
tell the public today that this historic level of appointments has been
reached, that President Bush has matched President Reagan's first-term
judicial appointments with 15 months remaining in his term. You will
not hear that truth from this administration. The Senate has opposed
only the most extreme nominees and has moved cooperatively and
expeditiously on less controversial nominees.
The record will reflect that Democrats have worked hard to balance
the need to fill vacancies on the Federal bench with the imperative
that the judges chosen will be fair to all people. With this
confirmation, there are now only 40 vacant seats in the Federal bench.
Until this year, this mark had not been reached in 13 years or during
the entire Clinton administration, when more than 50 judicial nominees
were blocked from receiving confirmation votes. Had we not authorized
almost 20 judgeships last year, the vacancies might be in the 20's.
President Bush is on pace to appoint judges far in excess of those of
any other President in American history. In fact, this President has
had so many vacant seats to fill because Senate Republicans did such an
effective job of blocking scores of Clinton nominees with impunity.
When I became chairman of the Judiciary Committee in mid-2001, we
inherited 110 vacancies. In a little more than 2 years since then
Democrats and Republicans have worked together to confirm 165 judicial
nominees of President Bush. The White House and the Republicans in the
Senate refuse to declare themselves victorious in their efforts to
appoint a historic number of judges chosen by the President. They
insist on seeing the glass half empty, when it is nearly full to the
brim. They refuse to take any steps to address the fact that fully 20
percent of President Clinton's judicial nominees were blocked from
getting votes when Republicans controlled the Senate. In those 6 years,
they allowed only 248 judicial nominees to be confirmed and blocked
another 63. Today, in less than 3 years, President Bush has achieved
what it took President Reagan four full years to achieve 165 judicial
confirmations.
Nominations from bipartisan selection commissions can proceed
expeditiously. Judge Rodgers received a committee hearing within weeks
of her paperwork being completed and she will be confirmed less than a
month after her hearing. Her confirmation could have occurred even
sooner since she has been pending on the floor for several weeks but I
am happy that the majority leader has decided to turn to her
confirmation this afternoon.
Judge Rodgers' appointment to the district court in the Northern
District of Florida will bring her legal career full circle since her
first job out of law school was as a judicial clerk on this very court.
I am pleased to cast a vote for her confirmation today and I
congratulate Judge Rodgers and her family.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President will
be notified of the Senate's action.
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