[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 183 (Monday, December 3, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S14695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as the Senate begins its final work period 
of the year, I want to thank those members of the Judiciary Committee 
who have been working so hard throughout this year in helping us 
fulfill our duties with respect to nominations.
  Given the work of the Senators serving on the Judiciary Committee, 
the Senate is in position to confirm 40 judicial nominees for lifetime 
appointments to the Federal bench this year, including 6 more of this 
President's circuit court nominees.
  The Senate has already acted to confirm 36 lifetime judicial 
appointments. Remaining on the Senate Executive calendar are the 
nominations of John Daniel Tinder to the Court of Appeals for the 
Seventh Circuit, Amul R. Thapar to the Eastern District of Kentucky, 
Joseph Normand Laplante to the District of New Hampshire, and Thomas D. 
Schroeder to the Middle District of North Carolina. When they are 
confirmed, and with the cooperation of Senators they can be confirmed 
this month, we will have exceeded the yearly total in each of the last 
3 years when a Republican majority managed the Senate and the 
consideration of this Republican President's nominations. Indeed, we 
are proceeding on vacancies before they arise in some cases.
  When we conclude our work on judicial nominations this year, we will 
have exceeded the totals in 2004, 2005, or 2006 when a Republican-led 
Senate was considering this President's nominees. We are exceeding the 
totals confirmed in 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2000, when a Republican-led 
Senate was considering President Clinton's nominees. We are even 
exceeding the totals in 1989 and 1993 when a Democratic-led Senate was 
considering President Clinton's nominees. This year's total will be 
almost two dozen more confirmations than were achieved during the 1996 
session when Republicans refused to proceed to confirm any of President 
Clinton's circuit court nominations.
  We continue to make progress on circuit court nominations. The six 
circuit court nominees confirmed this year matches the total circuit 
court confirmations for 2001. We will have exceeded the circuit court 
totals achieved in 2004 when a Republican-led Senate was considering 
this President's circuit nominees; in 1983, when a Republican-led 
Senate was considering President Reagan's nominees; in 1993, when a 
Democratic-led Senate was considering President Clinton's nominees; 
and, of course, the 1996 session during which a Republican-led Senate 
did not confirm a single one of President Clinton's circuit nominees 
the entire session.
  It is a little known fact that during the Bush Presidency, more 
circuit judges, more district judges--more total judges--were confirmed 
in the first 24 months that I served as Judiciary chairman than during 
the 2-year tenures of either of the two Republican chairmen working 
with Republican Senate majorities.
  I continue to try to find ways to make progress. Last month, I sent 
the President a letter urging him to work with me, Senator Specter, and 
home State Senators to send us more well-qualified, consensus 
nominations. To reward me for reaching out again and extending the 
olive branch to him, this President responded not by replying to my 
letter but by a much ballyhooed partisan speech before the Federal 
Society annual dinner.
  I have been concerned that several recent nominations seem to be part 
of an effort to pick political fights rather than judges to fill 
vacancies. For example, President Bush nominated Duncan Getchell to one 
of Virginia's Fourth Circuit vacancies over the objections of both 
respected Virginia Senators, one a Republican and one a Democrat. They 
had submitted a list of five recommended nominations, and specifically 
warned the White House not to nominate Mr. Getchell.
  In addition, we have succeeded in dramatically lowering vacancies 
and, in particular, circuit vacancies. We have helped cut the circuit 
vacancies from a high water mark of 32 in the early days of this 
administration to as low as 13 this year. Contrast that with the 
Republican-led Senate's lack of action on President Clinton's moderate 
and qualified nominees that resulted in increasing circuit vacancies 
during the Clinton years from 17 when he was inaugurated to 26 at the 
end of his term. During those years, the Republican-led Senate engaged 
in strenuous and successful efforts under the radar to keep circuit 
judgeships vacant in anticipation of a Republican President. More than 
60 percent of current circuit court judges were appointed by Republican 
Presidents, with the current President having appointed more than 30 
percent of the active circuit judges already.
  Of the remaining vacancies, 20--more than one-third--have no nominee. 
Of the 17 vacancies deemed by the Administrative Office to be judicial 
emergencies, the President has yet to send us nominees for 8, nearly 
half of them. Of the 14 circuit court vacancies, 4--about one-third--
are without a nominee. If the President would work with the Senators 
from Michigan, Rhode Island, Maryland, California, New Jersey, and 
Virginia, we could be in position to make even more progress.
  Of the vacancies without any nominee, the President has violated the 
timeline he set for himself at least 12 times--12 have been vacant 
without so much as a nominee for more than 180 days. The number of 
violations may in fact be much higher since the President said he would 
nominate within 180 days of receiving notice that there would be a 
vacancy or intended retirement rather than from the vacancy itself. We 
conservatively estimate that he also violated his own rule 13 times in 
connection with the nominations he has made. That would mean that with 
respect to approximately 46 vacancies, the President is out of 
compliance with his own rule more than half of the time.
  So I thank the members of the Judiciary Committee for their hard work 
considering these important nominations. I thank especially those 
Senators who have given generously of their time to chair confirmation 
hearings throughout the year.

                          ____________________