[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 8, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5687-S5689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S5687]]
                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

 NOMINATION OF FREDERICK J. KAPALA TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE 
                 FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 11:50 
a.m. having arrived, the Senate will proceed to executive session for 
consideration of Executive Calendar No. 84, which the clerk will 
report.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Frederick J. Kapala, of 
Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District 
of Illinois.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me say a few words about Judge Kapala. 
Frederick Kapala has been nominated by Senator Obama and myself to be a 
Federal district court judge in the Northern District of Illinois. 
Judge Kapala has served with distinction as a State court judge in 
Illinois for the past quarter century, and he has earned a great 
reputation. It is a very positive thing to say that 99 percent of the 
attorneys surveyed gave Judge Kapala a positive recommendation for his 
temperament, integrity, and management skills. He had a unanimous 
rating of ``well qualified'' by the American Bar Association, the 
highest rating a nominee can receive. He has been judged by many to be 
an excellent candidate for the Federal bench.
  I have met with him personally. I have met his family. I like this 
man. I think he will serve our judiciary well. I hope when we vote on 
this in a few minutes he will receive an overwhelming vote of support.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, I support the nomination of Judge Frederick 
J. Kapala to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for 
the Northern District of Illinois. Judge Kapala's career exemplifies a 
strong commitment to public service. He currently serves as an 
appellate judge on the Second District Appellate Court in Illinois, a 
position he has held since 2001. Prior to his service on the Second 
District Appellate Court, Judge Kapala was a circuit court judge for 
the 17th Judicial Circuit for Winnebago and Boone Counties for 7 years. 
Prior to that service, Judge Kapala was an Associate Circuit Court 
Judge for the same circuit for 12 years.
  After graduating from the University of Illinois College of Law in 
1976, Judge Kapala became an assistant State's attorney in Winnebago 
County. He made a brief foray into private practice, joining the law 
firm of Pedderson, Menzimer, Conde, Stoner, and Killoren in Rockford 
from 1977 to 1982.
  Judge Kapala is a magna cum laude graduate of Marquette University. 
He proudly served his country in the U.S. Army on both Active and 
Reserve duty from 1970 to 1980.
  Judge Kapala has dedicated his life and career to the public good. 
Whether it was his military service or his judicial service to the good 
people of Rockford and the counties of Winnebago and Boone, Judge 
Kapala has served with compassion and distinction.
  I am pleased to join the Senate in confirming him to the United 
States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Pennsylvania is 
recognized.
  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I agree with the Senator from Illinois 
who has spoken in support of the nomination of Judge Frederick J. 
Kapala to be a U.S. district court judge for the Northern District of 
Illinois. He has an outstanding academic record--graduating magma cum 
laude from Marquette University in 1972, where he was Phi Beta Kappa. 
He obtained his law degree from the University of Illinois, where he 
was a moot court board member.
  He has a professional career which is diversified and with extensive 
judicial experience. From 1970 to 1980, Judge Kapala served our country 
in the United States Army, on both active and reserve duty. He obtained 
the rank of Captain before his honorable discharge. Upon graduation 
from law school, he was assistant State's attorney--that is the 
prosecuting attorney in Illinois--for 1 year. He then practiced law for 
5 years. He has been an associate circuit court judge from 1982 to 1994 
and a circuit court judge for 7 years, until 2001. Since 2001, he has 
been an appellate court justice for the State of Illinois. He has 
extensive community activities. He was rated by the American Bar 
Association as unanimously ``well qualified.''
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at the conclusion of my 
remarks, a summary of Judge Kapala's curriculum vitae be printed in the 
Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. SPECTER. My sense from prior confirmation proceedings and votes 
in the Senate is that Judge Kapala will receive a strong vote, probably 
unanimous.


                           Immigration Reform

  In the remaining time, I will discuss what we are doing on the 
immigration bill because there have been so many inquiries.
  We all know the history of the immigration legislation from the 109th 
Congress. The Judiciary Committee reported out a bill. It came to the 
floor of the Senate, with many amendments, and it was passed with 
substantial bipartisan support. The House of Representatives had a very 
different configuration on the bill. They were concerned only with the 
border security, contrasted with the Senate bill, which was a 
comprehensive bill.
  We have had numerous meetings in an effort to structure a consensus 
bill in the course of the last many weeks. For many weeks, we met on 
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 4 o'clock to 6 o'clock, with as 
many as a dozen Republican Senators present, with the Secretary of 
Homeland Security and the Secretary of Commerce present. We have had 
substantial White House involvement reflecting the President's 
statement that he wants a comprehensive immigration reform bill. We 
have spent many hours on extended meetings with Democrats. There were 
half a dozen Democrats attending these meetings and a rather unique 
process illustrated last week where we met for 2\1/2\ hours with a 
dozen Senators being present. It is pretty hard to keep a dozen 
Senators sitting in one room at one time going over a great many ideas. 
We have come to an agreement on what we have called a ``grand 
bargain,'' which is the outline of an immigration bill.
  There is no doubt that we need to protect our borders and we have 
legislated for fencing. We want to provide fencing to protect the major 
metropolitan areas, and we can't have a fence for the entire length of 
the border. We have proposed and are prepared to enact legislation 
which would provide for 6,000 additional Border Patrol agents to bring 
the number to 12,000. We are proposing very strong employer sanctions. 
We do not want employment in the United States to be a magnet for 
illegal immigration, and it is now technically possible to have 
foolproof identification. It can be costly and we are still working 
through the details, but there is no doubt we want to secure the border 
and stop illegal immigration as the first item.
  We are talking about triggers so that we don't move ahead to dealing 
with the 11 million undocumented immigrants or dealing with a temporary 
worker program until we have solved the problem of securing the border 
and providing for identification so that there is a basis for using 
tough sanctions on the employers. But you can't do that unless they 
have a fair opportunity to know who is legal and who is illegal.
  We are rejecting the idea of amnesty for the 11 million undocumented 
immigrants. They are going to have to earn being on the citizenship 
path at the end. It will be required that they pay taxes, have 
community roots, have a substantial period of employment, and that they 
learn English. We are going to do our best to deport those who have 
criminal records. There is a real security risk with some of the 
undocumented immigrants who have criminal records and where they do 
commit crimes. It is a practical impossibility to deport 11 million 
undocumented immigrants.
  We are trying to structure a temporary worker program which is 
temporary, coming only for the purpose of filling needs and then 
returning to their in native countries. We are looking at a system so 
that if there are U.S.

[[Page S5688]]

citizens, people in this country who can take the jobs, they will have 
the first choice.
  The majority leader has stated publicly his intention to proceed 
under rule XIV and file a bill this week--perhaps tomorrow, and it will 
be listed for floor debate next Monday. There is a lot of concern among 
Republicans about proceeding in that way with concern that the bill 
that was reported out of committee does not have widespread support and 
the bill that passed the Senate does not have widespread support. And 
that there is a disinclination how it will go. Nobody knows for sure, 
but there is a disinclination to support a motion to proceed, raising 
the possibility that there may be a filibuster there.
  There is a concern in many quarters that we need more time. We have 
been proceeding diligently with very extended meetings. I have to 
confess there has been a fair amount of wheel spinning, but that we are 
not ready to proceed next Monday on the 14th to take up the bill the 
last 2 weeks before Memorial Day, as the leader has scheduled. I can 
understand the majority leader's concern about moving ahead and holding 
our feet to the fire to try to produce a bill but we are still working 
on it. Staff worked over the weekend. There was a meeting at the White 
House on Sunday. I had an extended discussion yesterday with Senator 
Kennedy. Senator Kennedy met with one of the Secretaries, and we are 
working at top speed.
  It will certainly be preferable if we can come up with a bill that 
would not have to have S. 2611, which passed the Senate last year or 
the chairman's mark or the bill that came out of Judiciary. I have been 
asked about this every time I step into the corridor, so I thought it 
would be useful to give this brief summary, without impacting on 
Senator Leahy's time. I will note that some Democratic time on the 
judicial nomination was taken up by Senator Durbin earlier.
  I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

         Frederick Joseph Kapala, Northern District of Illinois

       Judge Frederick Joseph Kapala was first nominated on 
     December 6, 2006. He was renominated on January 9, 2007. A 
     hearing was held on his nomination on March 13, 2007, and he 
     was unanimously reported out of the Judiciary Committee on 
     April 25, 2007.
       Judge Kapala has truly outstanding academic and 
     professional qualifications.
       He received his B.A. magma cum laude, in 1972 from 
     Marquette University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa 
     and Pi Gamma Mu (social science honors). He received his J.D. 
     from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1976. 
     During law school, he participated in Moot Court and served 
     as a member of the Moot Court Board.
       From 1970 to 1980, Judge Kapala served our country in the 
     United States Army, on both active and reserve duty. He 
     obtained the rank of Captain before his honorable discharge.
       After graduation from law school, Judge Kapala served for 
     one year as an Assistant State's Attorney in the County of 
     Winnebago, Illinois before joining the law firm of Pedderson, 
     Menzimer, Conde, Stoner and Killoren in 1977. He practiced 
     both litigation and transactional law with that firm until 
     1982.
       Between 1981 and 1982, he also served part time as a 
     Special Assistant Attorney General in the Illinois Attorney 
     General's Office, prosecuting consumer fraud cases.
       As a practitioner, Judge Kapala tried over 100 cases to 
     verdict.
       In 1982, Judge Kapala was first appointed to the state 
     court bench as an Associate Circuit Court Judge for the 17th 
     Judicial Circuit, a state trial court. While serving in this 
     office, he was presiding judge of the juvenile court in 
     Winnebago County from 1989 until 1991.
       In 1994, Judge Kapala was first elected a full Circuit 
     Court Judge in the same circuit, and since then, he has been 
     re-elected twice. During his tenure in this capacity, Judge 
     Kapala was appointed as the presiding judge of the criminal 
     court division in Winnebago County from 1995 until 2001. In 
     2001, he was assigned to serve as a Judge of the Appellate 
     Court of Illinois, Second District.
       The ABA unanimously rated Mr. Kapala as ``Well Qualified.''

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, how much time does the Senator from Vermont 
have?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont is recognized for 6 
minutes.
  (The remarks of Mr. Leahy pertaining to the introduction of S. 1327 
and S. 1328 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on 
Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, we are making significant progress today 
with another confirmation of a lifetime appointment to the Federal 
bench. I am sure Frederick J. Kapala will be confirmed for the District 
Court for the Northern District of Illinois. His nomination is 
supported by the home State Senators. I thank Senator Durbin for 
chairing the hearing on this nomination.
  Judge Kapala serves as a state appellate judge on the Second District 
Appellate Court in Illinois. He has almost 20 years of experience as a 
state trial court judge. Before coming to the bench, he worked for the 
Rockford, Illinois law firm of Pedderson, Menzimer, Conde, Stoner and 
Killoren, and he worked as an Assistant State's Attorney in Winnebago 
County. Prior to his legal career, he served 10 years in the U.S. Army.
  This will be the 17th judicial confirmation this year. The calendar 
just turned to the month of May, it is spring, and we have already 
confirmed as many judges as were confirmed during the entire 1996 
session, when President Clinton's nominees were being reviewed by the 
Republican-controlled Senate majority. We have done as much in May in a 
Democrat-controlled Senate as the Republican-controlled Senate did in a 
whole year for President Clinton. That was a session when not a single 
circuit court nominee was confirmed. Of course, we have already 
confirmed two circuit court nominees in the early months of this 
session.
  I mention this because it is somewhat frustrating to hear the gross 
misstatements made by some of the Republican leaders, such as Vice 
President Cheney, Mr. Rove, and others, who speak for the President on 
the pace of judicial nominees. Not only is this the 17th judicial 
confirmation this year, it is also the 117th judicial confirmation in 
the approximately 2 years I have served as Judiciary chairman over the 
past 6 years. That exceeds by more than a dozen the confirmations 
Senator Hatch presided over during the 2 years he was Judiciary 
chairman. It also exceeds by more than a dozen the district court 
nominees confirmed during the two years he was Judiciary Chairman.
  With the confirmation of Judge Hardiman to the Third Circuit earlier 
this year, the total circuit court confirmations achieved during my 
chairmanships, which have not yet extended over the 24 months of 
Senator Hatch's chairmanship, also exceed those achieved during his. I 
only mention this because if you listen to what comes down to being 
total mistruths by the Vice President or others, you would think we 
blocked the President's judges.
  Actually, we have done far better for President Bush--far better than 
when a Republican majority was here and pocket filibustered 61 of 
President Clinton's nominees. It is a little known, and obviously 
unappreciated, fact that during the more than 6 years of the Bush 
Presidency, more circuit judges, more district judges, and more total 
judges have been confirmed while I served as Judiciary Committee 
Chairman than during the tenures of either of the two Republican 
Chairman working with Republican Senate majorities did.
  The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts lists 48 judicial 
vacancies. Yet, the President has sent only 25 nominations for these 
vacancies. Twenty-three of these vacancies--almost half--have no 
nominee. Of the 16 vacancies deemed by the Administrative Office to be 
judicial emergencies, the President has yet to send us nominees for six 
of them.
  Despite the harping and the criticism, the Judiciary Committee has 
been working hard to make progress on those nominations the President 
has sent to us. Of course, when he sends nominees that he knows are 
unacceptable to home state Senators, it is not a formula for success.
  I congratulate Judge Kapala, and his family, on his confirmation 
today.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, have the yeas and nays been requested?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. No.
  Mr. LEAHY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There is a 
sufficient second.
  The question is, Shall the Senate advise and consent to the 
nomination of Frederick J. Kapala, of Illinois, to be United States 
District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois?

[[Page S5689]]

  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), 
the Senator from Connecticut, (Mr. Dodd), the Senator from California 
(Mrs. Feinstein), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Johnson), and the 
Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. LOTT. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Utah (Mr. Bennett), the Senator from Arizona (Mr. McCain), the 
Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Sununu), and the Senator from Louisiana 
(Mr. Vitter).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 91, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 153 Ex.]

                                YEAS--91

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brown
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Isakson
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Tester
     Thomas
     Thune
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--9

     Bennett
     Biden
     Dodd
     Feinstein
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     McCain
     Sununu
     Vitter
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the President shall 
be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________