[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 63 (Tuesday, April 28, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S4799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        STATUTORY TIME-PERIODS TECHNICAL AMENDMENTS ACT OF 2009

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I am pleased that yesterday the Senate 
passed the Statutory Time-Periods Technical Amendments Act of 2009, 
H.R. 1626. This good-government bill creates a more consistent and 
standard method for lawyers and judges to calculate court deadlines. It 
is a small but important bipartisan bill that will improve the 
effectiveness of our judicial system.
  Last week, the House of Representatives passed this bill on their 
suspension calendar. The Senate has given its unanimous support to this 
legislation, and I look forward to the President signing this bill.
  Last month, I introduced an identical measure in the Senate with 
Senators Specter, Whitehouse, and Sessions. In the last few weeks, I 
have worked with many others in the House and Senate to ensure that 
this legislation proceeded quickly through both Chambers of Congress. 
Representative Hank Johnson has worked especially hard to move this 
bill through the House. We have a strong bipartisan bill that will 
result in significant improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness 
of our judicial system.
  This legislation incorporates the full recommendations of the 
Judicial Conference of the United States to alter deadlines in certain 
statutes affecting court proceedings to account for recent amendments 
to the Federal time-computation rules. It provides judges and 
practitioners with commonsense deadlines that are less confusing and 
less complex than current deadlines and also ensures that existing time 
periods are not shortened.
  After much study and significant public comment, the Judicial 
Conference's Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure and 
the Advisory Committees on Appellate, Bankruptcy, Civil, and Criminal 
Rules arrived at proposed new rules intended to provide predictability 
and uniformity to the current process of calculating court deadlines. 
The proposed rules respond, in part, to findings from the Judicial 
Conference that the current time-computation process is confusing and 
can lead to missed deadlines and litigants' loss of important rights. 
Under the current time-calculation rules, weekends and holidays are not 
counted when calculating court deadlines of less than 30 days but are 
counted for calculating court deadlines longer than 30 days. The 
proposed new rules simplify this process by counting holidays and 
weekends regardless of a court deadline's time period. According to the 
Judicial Conference, these proposed changes would respond to 
practitioners' complaints and concerns from judges.
  This legislation amends a number of Federal civil and criminal 
statutes affecting court proceedings and harmonizes them with the 
proposed rules. First, this remedial bill alters certain statutory 
court deadlines to counterbalance any shortening of the time period 
resulting from the ``days are days'' approach. For example, the bill 
changes 5 days to 7 days, and 10 days to 14 days, to prevent time 
periods from becoming shorter when a practitioner counts all days, 
including weekends. This change would, in effect, maintain the same 
time periods in the statutes. In addition, if a time period ends on a 
holiday or a weekend, the time period would be extended to the next 
business day. The bill also changes some statutory deadlines that would 
otherwise be inconsistent with the amended rules deadlines and lead to 
confusion.
  Both the Department of Justice and the Judicial Conference urge swift 
consideration of this proposal on or before December 1 of this year, 
the date the Judicial Conference's amendments to the rules take effect. 
I am pleased that we are able to accommodate their request.
  Passing this bill is the right thing to do. I know that the legal 
community will benefit from the uniform court deadlines that this 
legislation provides. American citizens will have their rights more 
fully protected by court deadlines that are clear and unambiguous. Even 
more, public confidence in our justice system can only be strengthened 
when court procedures operate in a manner that is free of any 
unnecessary confusion.
  I thank the Department of Justice and the wide array of legal and bar 
organizations that have supported the Judicial Conference's 
recommendations incorporated in this bill, including of the American 
College of Trial Lawyers, the Council of Appellate Lawyers, and the 
American Bar Association's Section of Litigation and Criminal Justice 
Section. I am especially grateful to the Administrative Office of the 
Courts which, on behalf of the Judicial Conference, sent us those 
policy recommendations from the Federal judiciary. Those 
recommendations are included in this bill, and I commend them for their 
hard work and attention to this issue.
  Only a few months into a new administration and a new Congress, it is 
incumbent upon us to continue to focus on the requirements of the 
Federal judiciary that our citizens and our Republic need and deserve. 
The measure we passed yesterday is a positive step in the right 
direction.
  I look forward to President Obama promptly signing it into law.

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