[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

                                 ______
                                 

  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.

                          ____________________