[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 14, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10437-S10438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself, Mr. Leahy, and Mr. Sessions):
  S. 1782. A bill to provide improvements for the operations of the 
Federal courts, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the 
Judiciary.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Federal 
Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 on behalf of myself 
and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, 
Senators Leahy and Sessions. I thank them for their support. It has 
been a pleasure to work with them on this important bipartisan effort.
  The Federal Courts decide crucial issues of criminal and civil law 
every day, providing justice and protecting our constitutional rights. 
It is our responsibility in Congress to ensure that our governing 
technical issues of judicial administration will help them in this 
effort.
  The Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 takes 
up that responsibility by making nine technical fixes necessary for the 
better administration of the Federal courts. The bill will clarify the 
role of Senior Judges in the selection of Magistrate Judges, enable 
better workload distribution among the judges of the District of North 
Dakota, align the benefits received by territorial judges in Guam, the 
U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands with those of 
other term judges, equalize leave limits and pay scales for judicial 
executives with those for senior executive branch officials, protect 
individual privacy in connection with judges' role in the sentencing 
process, clarify the authority of pretrial service officers over 
juvenile offenders, amend requirements for the reporting of wiretap 
information to the Administrative Office of the Courts, and add an 
inflation adjustment for the case expenses that must be reviewed by the 
chief judge of a district court. The Administrative Office of the 
Courts supports each provision.
  I urge my colleagues to act promptly on this bipartisan legislation. 
I again thank Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Sessions for their 
support.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, I am pleased to join Senators 
Whitehouse and Sessions to introduce the Federal Judiciary 
Administrative Improvements Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill that would 
improve the administration and efficiency of our Federal court system. 
This legislation would also provide the third branch of government with 
important assistance to the women and men who comprise the Federal 
judiciary.
  I thank Senator Whitehouse and Senator Sessions for their hard work 
on this critical issue. I previously introduced a court improvement 
bill in the 108th Congress. I hope the bill we introduce today will 
pass the full Senate with unanimous support, and will not be subjected 
to the objections of Senate Republicans as it was 5 years ago. I have 
also supported past legislative proposals from the Judicial Conference 
to improve the administration of justice in the Federal courts, 
including a similar measure last year, which was enacted into law.
  In recent years, the job of a Federal judge has changed considerably. 
Today, Federal judges at both the trial and appellate level are hearing 
more cases with fewer available judicial resources. We have a 
responsibility to pass legislation that helps them keep up with 
changing times and circumstances. Just as it is the judiciary's duty to 
deliver justice in a neutral and unbiased manner, it is the duty of the 
legislative branch to provide the requisite tools for the women and men 
who honorably serve on the judiciary to ably fulfill their critical 
responsibilities. I believe our independent judiciary is the envy of 
the world, and we must take care to protect it.
  The legislation we introduce today contains proposals that the 
Federal judiciary believes will improve its operations and allow it to 
continue to serve as a bulwark protecting our individual rights and 
liberties. It also contains additional technical and substantive 
proposals carried over from previous Congresses.
  The Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 would 
facilitate judicial operations and improve judicial resource 
management. The bill would clarify existing law to ensure that senior 
judges with a minimum workload can participate in the selection of 
magistrate judges. The bill would also revise the statutory description 
of the District of North Dakota to eliminate unnecessary references to 
divisions and counties, while maintaining the present requirement that 
North Dakota constitutes one judicial district. I believe this 
technical change would improve the judicial workload distribution in 
that district and reduce travel time for litigants.
  Our legislation also contains critical provisions that would improve 
personnel and benefits for certain judges and their hardworking 
judiciary staff. The bill would authorize a cost-of-living adjustment 
for Federal territorial judges entitled to receive an annuity. It would 
also authorize territorial judges who are 65 years of age or older to 
collect, for the remainder of their lives, an annuity equal to the 
salary received when they left office. These changes would reduce 
existing inequities between Federal territorial judges and other term 
judges such as Federal magistrate and bankruptcy judges. The bill would 
extend to senior executives in the Federal courts, the Federal Judicial 
Center, and the Sentencing Commission the same ability to carry over 
annual leave hours as that enjoyed by senior employees in the Executive 
Branch and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, AO. 
It would also allow the Federal Judicial Center to provide a modest 
increase in pay for certain division directors.
  The Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 would also 
improve the administration of criminal justice. The bill would better 
protect confidential information about a defendant during sentencing by 
allowing the ``statement of reasons'' form that judges are required to 
issue upon sentencing to be filed separately with the court. This 
change would allow confidential information contained within the 
``statement of reasons'' to be more easily controlled and protected. In 
addition, the bill would clarify the scope of authority of Federal 
pretrial services officers to supervise and assist juveniles awaiting 
delinquency disposition in Federal court. Current laws regarding the 
duties of pretrial service officers focus solely on adults and thus it 
is unclear what duties those officers have to provide services to 
juveniles. This bill would fill that gap and ensure that pretrial 
services officers are fully authorized to arrange drug treatment and 
other critical services for juvenile offenders. The bill would also 
improve the statistical reporting schedule for criminal wiretap orders. 
It would eliminate burdensome monthly deadlines for state and Federal 
judges to report their wiretap data and unrealistic interagency 
deadlines for reporting that data to the AO. This change will allow for 
more comprehensive reporting of wiretap data.
  In addition, the legislation we introduce today would also conserve 
judicial resources over certain court requests from indigent 
defendants. Under current law, a certain statutory threshold exists at 
which the costs of hiring expert witnesses and conducting 
investigations for indigent defendants must be approved by the court. 
These thresholds do not account for inflation, however, which results 
in a waste of precious judicial resources. This bill would apply an 
inflationary index to the threshold amount to make them more cost-
effective. As a result, this change will allow judges to spend more 
time on less of these requests each year, which would better improve 
the overall administration of justice.
  I am glad that this important legislation has the support of the 
Administrative Office of the Courts, on behalf of the Judicial 
Conference, and Senators on both sides of the aisle. The Federal 
judiciary needs these improvements to increase its efficiency and 
administrative operations. I urge all Senators to support prompt 
passage of this noncontroversial legislation this year.

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