[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 67 (Thursday, May 19, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H3586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 END FILIBUSTER AGAINST PRISCILLA OWEN

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, throughout her career, Judge Priscilla Owen 
has received support from across the ideological spectrum. In 2000 she 
was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term on the Texas Supreme 
Court, receiving 84 percent of the vote. Every major newspaper in Texas 
endorsed her for election.
  Her popularity stems from her excellence on the bench and in private 
practice where she distinguished herself as a litigator after earning 
the highest score in the State on the Texas bar exam in 1977.
  On May 9, 2001, Priscilla Owen was nominated to the Fifth Circuit 
Court. The nomination is supported by three former Democrat judges on 
the Texas Supreme Court, a bipartisan group of 15 past presidents of 
the State Bar of Texas. However, on five separate occasions in the U.S. 
Senate, Democrats succeeded in blocking the vote on the floor, even 
though she has the votes to be confirmed, because of partisanship and 
politics.
  Today political maneuverings stand and Judge Owen's courtroom stands 
empty. Senate Democrats are holding qualified judges hostage to their 
extremist views and disrupting the constitutional process. That is 
wrong, unprecedented, and it should stop.

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