[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 52 (Thursday, May 4, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4034-S4035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

   BRIAN M. COGAN TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE EASTERN 
                          DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. According to the previous order, the Senate 
will go into executive session.
  The clerk will report the first nomination.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Brian M. Cogan, of New 
York, to be United States District Judge for the Eastern District of 
New York.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time is yielded back.
  Mrs. MURRAY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I endorse the nomination of Brian Mark 
Cogan for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. 
Mr. Cogan graduated from the University of Illinois in 1976, and 
received a law degree from Cornell in 1979. He is admitted to the bar 
in both New York and Florida. From 1979 to 1980, he was a law clerk for 
Judge Aronovitz in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of 
Florida, and he was an associate and later a partner and general 
counsel for the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.
  Mr. Cogan possesses the qualifications to be an outstanding Federal 
judge. He had a hearing before the Judiciary Committee, which I chair, 
and we voted him out unanimously.
  Based on his record, I urge my colleagues to support his confirmation 
today.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, this afternoon the Senate will confirm two 
more lifetime appointments to the Federal judiciary, Thomas Golden of 
Pennsylvania and Brian Cogan of New York. These confirmations will 
bring the total number of Senate-confirmed judicial appointments since 
January 2001 to 240, including the confirmations of two Supreme Court 
Justices and 43 circuit court judges.
  Democrats in the Senate have been cooperative in considering and 
confirming consensus nominees. In fact, 100 judges were confirmed 
during the 17 months when there was a Democratic majority in the Senate 
compared to only 140 judges in the other 45 months under Republican 
control.
  This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out another 
five judicial nominees unanimously. When they are considered and 
confirmed by the Senate, we will not only reach 245 judicial 
confirmations, but we will equal the number of judicial nominations 
considered in the entire session in the election year of 1996 when a 
Republican Senate controlled consideration of President Clinton's 
nominations. In session not a single nomination to the court of appeals 
was considered, not one. Of course this year we have already joined in 
confirming Judge Michael Chagares to the Third Circuit and I expect 
Democratic Senators to join in confirming the nomination of Milan Smith 
to the Ninth Circuit when that nomination is scheduled by the majority 
leader.
  Unfortunately, the Senate Republican leadership is again bent on 
seeking to use nominations to score partisan points. Our job is to 
fulfill our duty under the Constitution for the American people so that 
we can assure them that the judges confirmed to lifetime appointments 
to the highest courts in this country are fair to those who enter their 
courtrooms and to the law, rather than to advance a partisan agenda. 
Regrettably, this is not the first time the Republican leadership in

[[Page S4035]]

the Senate has chosen to pursue a partisan agenda using judicial 
nominees. Sadly, published reports during the last couple of weeks 
indicate that the Senate Republican leadership is, instead, preparing 
to cater to the extreme rightwing faction that is agitating for fights 
over judicial nominations. We will see that when they insist on 
confrontation over such controversial nominations as Judge Terrence 
Boyle, Norman Randy Smith or Brett Kavanaugh. Despite Democratic 
cooperation in the confirmation of scores of nominees and the 
undeniable fact that we have treated this President's nominees more 
fairly than Republicans treated those of President Clinton, they seem 
intent on using controversial judicial nominations to stir up their 
partisan political base.
  Rather than address the priorities of Americans by focusing on 
proposals to end the subsidies to big oil and rein in gas prices, 
rather than devote our time to passing comprehensive immigration reform 
legislation, rather than completing a budget, the Republican leader 
came to the floor last week to signal a fight over controversial 
judicial nominations. One of the nominations that the Republicans want 
to rubberstamp is that of Judge Terrence Boyle to the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. We have learned from recent news 
reports that, as a sitting U.S. district judge and while a circuit 
court nominee, Judge Boyle ruled on multiple cases involving 
corporations in which he held investments. In at least one instance, he 
is alleged to have bought General Electric stock while presiding over a 
lawsuit in which General Electric was accused of illegally denying 
disability benefits to a long-time employee. Two months later, he ruled 
in favor of GE and denied the employee's claim for long-term and 
pension disability benefits. Whether or not it turns out that Judge 
Boyle broke Federal law or canons of judicial ethics, these types of 
conflicts of interest have no place on the Federal bench. Certainly, 
they should not be rewarded with a promotion. They should be 
investigated.
  The Republican leadership would rather have the Senate be a 
rubberstamp for rewarding this administration's cronies with lifetime 
appointments to high Federal courts. They have tried before. If the 
White House had its way, we would already have confirmed Claude Allen 
to the Fourth Circuit. He is the former Bush administration official 
who recently resigned his position as a top domestic policy adviser to 
the President. Last month we learned why he resigned when he was 
arrested for fraudulent conduct over an extended period of time. Had 
Democrats not objected to the White House attempt to shift a circuit 
judgeship from Maryland to Virginia, someone now the subject of a 
criminal prosecution for the equivalent of stealing from retail stores 
would be a sitting judge on the Fourth Circuit confirmed with a 
Republican rubberstamp.
  A look at the Federal judiciary in Pennsylvania demonstrates yet 
again that President Bush's nominees have been treated far better than 
President Clinton's and shows dramatically how Democrats have worked in 
a bipartisan way to fill vacancies, despite the fact that Republicans 
blocked more than 60 of President Clinton's judicial nominees. With 
today's confirmation of Thomas Golden to be a district court judge in 
Pennsylvania, 21 of President Bush's nominees to the Federal courts in 
Pennsylvania will have been confirmed, more than for any other State 
except California.
  With this confirmation, President Bush's nominees will make up 21 of 
the 43 active Federal circuit and district court judges for 
Pennsylvania--that is more than 49 percent of the Pennsylvania Federal 
bench. On the Pennsylvania district courts alone, President Bush's will 
now sit in 18 of the 36 judgeships.
  This is in sharp contrast to the way vacancies in Pennsylvania were 
left unfilled during Republican control of the Senate when President 
Clinton was in the White House. Republicans denied votes to nine 
district and one circuit court nominees of President Clinton in 
Pennsylvania alone. Despite the efforts and diligence of the senior 
Senator from Pennsylvania, Senator Specter, to secure the confirmation 
of all of the judicial nominees from every part of his home State, 
there were 10 nominees by President Clinton to Pennsylvania vacancies 
who never got a vote. Despite records that showed these to be well-
qualified nominees, these nominations were blocked from Senate 
consideration.
  So while I congratulate Thomas Golden and his family on his 
confirmation, I remember those who were not treated so fairly by Senate 
Republicans.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the nomination of Brian M. Cogan, of New York, to be United 
States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York?
  On this question, the yeas and nays have been ordered, and the clerk 
will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators were necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Bunning) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. 
Hatch).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. 
Bunning) would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Bayh), the 
Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer), and the Senator from West 
Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coleman). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 95, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 113 Ex.]

                                YEAS--95

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Brownback
     Burns
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     Dayton
     DeMint
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Frist
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Salazar
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--5

     Bayh
     Boxer
     Bunning
     Hatch
     Rockefeller
  The nomination was confirmed.

                          ____________________