[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 29 (Thursday, February 15, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1983-S1984]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, this morning there will be a brief period of 
morning business until 10:20, and then we will proceed to executive 
session to consider the nomination of Randy Smith, to be a U.S. Circuit 
Court Judge, and Marcia Morales Howard, to be a U.S. District Judge. 
Debate on these nominations is limited to a total of 10 minutes equally 
divided and controlled between the chairman and ranking member of the 
Judiciary Committee. At 10:30, the Senate will proceed to vote on 
confirmation of these two nominations.
  I would like to indicate to Members that a third rollcall vote is 
likely shortly after these votes on the adjournment of the Senate, so 
Members should plan on three votes instead of two.
  Following these votes there will be morning business, with the first 
hour controlled by Senator Leahy and then the Republican leader or his 
designee will control an hour.
  Mr. President, in a short time, we will approve the first circuit 
court judge of this Congress. The distinguished Republican leader and I 
have had conversations about having as little acrimony--in fact, 
hopefully none--on circuit court judges. The last Congress will be 
noted for a number of things and one will be the contentiousness of the 
circuit court judges that came before the Senate. I have made a 
commitment to my friend from Kentucky that we will move forward on 
these. We have had conversations with the President, and he is going to 
do his best to send us circuit court judges that are not people who 
cause a lot of heartburn on this side, and we think that is totally 
possible and in keeping with the standards President Bush wants for 
these circuit court judges. So this is a time when we are going to try 
to work together to move forward.
  Randy Smith is the first, and I say to everyone, it wasn't easy to 
get him here. He has been nominated for one position and then another 
position. There was a little holdup to begin with, but we are beginning 
to work through this, as we wish to do. We have members of the 
Judiciary Committee who

[[Page S1984]]

understand this and the two managers of this committee, the chairman, 
Senator Leahy, and the ranking member, Senator Specter, know of our 
concern, and that is the concern of Senator McConnell and myself, and 
we are going to do our very best to make sure this is not our last 
circuit court judge but the first of a significant number who can at 
least meet the standards of Congresses similarly situated as ours.

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