[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 82 (Thursday, June 22, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6401-S6402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
ANDREW J. GUILFORD TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE CENTRAL
DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination,
which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Andrew J.
Guilford, of California, to be United States District Judge for the
Central District of California.
Mr. WARNER. 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. LEAHY. Mr. President, today the Senate will confirm two more
lifetime appointments to our Federal courts. I am glad that we are
voting on Andrew Guilford, who has been nominated to the District Court
for the Central District of California and who has the support of his
Democratic home State Senators, Mrs. Boxer and Mrs. Feinstein. Frank
Whitney, a nominee for the District Court for the Western District of
North Carolina, has the support of his Republican home State Senators.
Both nominations were reported unanimously by the Judiciary Committee.
I am pleased that the Republican leadership has scheduled debate and
consideration of these nominations and am glad that the Republican
leadership
[[Page S6402]]
is this month taking notice of the fact that we can cooperate on swift
consideration and confirmation of consensus nominations. Working
together, we confirmed five judges in 1 week earlier this month. We
have confirmed three more this week. Many of these judges could have
been confirmed last month if the Republican leadership had chosen to
make progress instead of picking a fight on a controversial nomination.
I look forward to working with the Republican leadership to schedule
debate and consideration of other noncontroversial nominees.
I, again, commend the Republican Senate leadership for wisely passing
over the controversial nominations of William Gerry Myers III, Terrence
W. Boyle, and Norman Randy Smith. The Republican leadership is right to
have avoided an unnecessarily divisive debate over these nominations
that were reported on a party-line vote.
The President and Senate Republican leadership have too often,
though, chosen to pick fights over judicial nominations rather than
focus on filling vacancies. Judicial vacancies have now grown to well
over 40 from the lowest vacancy rate in decades. More than half these
vacancies are without a nominee. The Congressional Research Service has
recently released a study showing that this President has been the
slowest in decades to nominate and the Republican Senate among the
slowest to act. If they would concentrate on the needs of the courts,
our Federal justice system, and the needs of the American people, we
would be much further along.
Still, we have passed several milestones. When the Senate today
confirms Andrew Guilford and Frank Whitney as district court judges,
the Senate will have confirmed 251 of this President's judicial
nominees, crossing the 250 threshold. This milestone is an indicator of
how cooperative Senate Democrats have been in confirming this
President's nominees. Despite the slow pace of the President and the
Republican leadership in filling the needs of the judiciary, the Senate
has confirmed more of this President's nominees in the 66 months of his
Presidency than the Republican-controlled Senate did in the last 66
months of the Clinton Presidency. During that time, many good nominees
were never even given a vote in committee, and only 230 judges were
confirmed. That dubious total was the result of their pocket-filibuster
strategy to stall and maintain vacancies so that a Republican President
could pack the courts and tilt them decidedly to the right. It is a
strategy which has been working.
Also with these two nominations, the Republican-controlled Senate
will have this year confirmed 24 judicial nominations. That surpasses
the number of judges confirmed last year, 22. During the 17 months I
was chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Senate was under
Democratic control, we confirmed 100 of President Bush's nominees.
After today, in the last 17 months under Republican control, the Senate
will have confirmed 46. So the fact that the Senate has confirmed more
nominees in the past 5\1/2\ years than in the last 5\1/2\ years of the
Clinton administration is due in no small part to the much faster pace
of confirmations of this President's nominees when Democrats controlled
the Senate.
Working together, we could do better. I urge the White House to work
with us to select nominees with bipartisan support like Andrew
Guilford, rather than explosive partisan nominees like Terrence Boyle.
I hope that the Republican-controlled Senate will stop using
controversial judicial nominations to score partisan political points.
Our courts are too important.
Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I regret that I will not be able to vote on
the nomination of Andrew Guilford. I have been called back to Idaho
because of a family emergency. Had I been present to vote, I would have
voted in his favor. It is my understanding that there are no known
votes against this nominee, so his certain confirmation will not be
affected by my absence.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and
consent to the nomination of Andrew J. Guilford, of California, to be
United States District Judge for the Central District of California? 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 Idaho (Mr. Craig), the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Enzi),
the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Gregg), and the Senator from New
Hampshire (Mr. Sununu).
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr.
Lieberman), the Senator from West Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller), and the
Senator from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes) are necessarily absent.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 93, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 187 Leg.]
YEAS--93
Akaka
Alexander
Allard
Allen
Baucus
Bayh
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Brownback
Bunning
Burns
Burr
Byrd
Cantwell
Carper
Chafee
Chambliss
Clinton
Coburn
Cochran
Coleman
Collins
Conrad
Cornyn
Crapo
Dayton
DeMint
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Durbin
Ensign
Feingold
Feinstein
Frist
Graham
Grassley
Hagel
Harkin
Hatch
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Isakson
Jeffords
Johnson
Kennedy
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Landrieu
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lincoln
Lott
Lugar
Martinez
McCain
McConnell
Menendez
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murray
Nelson (FL)
Nelson (NE)
Obama
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Roberts
Salazar
Santorum
Schumer
Sessions
Shelby
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stabenow
Stevens
Talent
Thomas
Thune
Vitter
Voinovich
Warner
Wyden
NOT VOTING--7
Craig
Enzi
Gregg
Lieberman
Rockefeller
Sarbanes
Sununu
The nomination was confirmed.
Mr. WARNER. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that
motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
____________________