[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 192 (Friday, December 14, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15700-S15701]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 NOMINATION OF JOSEPH NORMAND LAPLANTE

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I am pleased that we can take a break 
from the tired partisan sniping from the other side of the aisle to 
continue, as we have all year, making progress considering and 
confirming the President's judicial nominations.
  The complaints we hear more and more loudly as we approach an 
election year from the President and others ring hollow. Last month, 
the Judiciary Committee reached a milestone by reporting out 4 more 
nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal bench, reaching 40 
in this session of Congress alone. That exceeds the totals reported in 
each of the previous 2 years, when a Republican-led Judiciary Committee 
was considering this President's nominees.
  Today we consider the nomination of Joseph Normand Laplante, who has 
been nominated to fill a vacancy in the Northern District of Texas. 
Joseph is well known to many of us Vermonters as he has spent much of 
his professional career working for our friends to the east in the old 
Granite State of New Hampshire and our friends to the south in the Bay 
State of Massachusetts. Joseph serves as the first assistant U.S. 
attorney for the District of New Hampshire. Before that, Joseph served 
as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Massachusetts, a trial 
attorney for the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division, and a 
senior assistant attorney general for the State of New Hampshire Office 
of the Attorney General. He also has experience as a private 
practitioner in New Hampshire. Joseph graduated from Georgetown 
University in 1987 and from the Georgetown Law Center in 1990.
  I thank Senator Gregg and Senator Sununu for their consideration of 
this nomination and Senator Whitehouse for chairing the confirmation 
hearing.
  When we confirm the nomination we consider today, the Senate will 
have confirmed 38 nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal 
bench this session alone. That is more than the total number of 
judicial nominations that a Republican-led Senate confirmed in all of 
1997, 1999, 2004, 2005 or 2006 with a Republican Majority. It is 21 
more confirmations than were achieved during the entire 1996 session, 
more than double that session's total of 17, when Republicans stalled 
consideration of President Clinton's nominations.
  When this nomination is confirmed, the Senate will have confirmed 138 
total Federal judicial nominees in my tenure as Judiciary Chairman. 
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.
  The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will list 45 judicial 
vacancies and 14 circuit court vacancies after today's confirmation. 
Compare that to the numbers at the end of the 109th Congress, when the 
total vacancies under a Republican controlled Judiciary Committee were 
51 judicial vacancies and 15 circuit court vacancies. That means that 
despite the additional 5 vacancies that arose at the beginning of the 
110th Congress, the current vacancy totals under my chairmanship of the 
Judiciary Committee are below where they were under a Republican-led 
Judiciary Committee. They are only a little more than half of what they 
were at the end of President Clinton's term, when Republican pocket 
filibusters allowed judicial vacancies to rise to 80, 26 of them for 
circuit courts.
  Despite the progress we have made, I will continue to work to find 
new ways to be productive on judicial nominations. Just 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. Now is the time for him to send us more 
nominations that could be considered and confirmed as his Presidency 
approaches its last year, before the Thurmond Rule kicks in.
  As I noted in that letter, 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 Senator Webb, a Democrat, and Senator Warner, a 
Republican. They had submitted a list of five recommended nominations, 
and specifically warned the White House not to nominate Mr. Getchell. 
As a result, this nomination

[[Page S15701]]

that is opposed by Democratic and Republican home state Senators is one 
that cannot move.
  When the President sends on well-qualified consensus nominations, we 
can work together and continue to make progress as we are today.
  I congratulate Joseph and his family on his confirmation today.

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