[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 74 (Thursday, May 26, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3418-S3419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, as the Senate prepares to adjourn for the 
Memorial Day recess, I had hoped that we would be allowed to proceed 
with the consensus judicial nominees ready for confirmation and who are 
so needed to fill vacancies on Federal courts around the country. 
Instead, the Republican leadership's filibuster of the nomination of 
Goodwin Liu is being supplemented with delays of even those judicial 
nominations supported by Republican home State Senators and approved by 
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This is too bad.
  With judicial vacancies continuing at crisis levels, affecting the 
ability of courts to provide justice to Americans around the country, I 
have been urging the Senate to vote on the judicial nominations 
reported favorably by the Judiciary Committee and pending on the 
Senate's Executive Calendar. The Senate is recessing with 19 judicial 
nominations awaiting final action. Of those, 16 are by anyone's 
definition consensus nominees. All 16 were unanimously approved by all 
Republican and all Democratic Senators on the Judiciary Committee. Yet 
they remain stalled without final Senate action.
  We should have regular votes on President Obama's highly qualified 
nominees, instead of partisan filibusters and more delays. With 
vacancies still totaling 90 on Federal courts throughout the country 
with nearly two dozen future vacancies on the horizon, there is no time 
to delay taking up these nominations. Had we taken positive action on 
the consensus nominees, vacancies could have been reduced below 80 for 
the first time in years.
  All of the nominations reported by this committee and pending on the 
Senate's Executive Calendar have been through our Judiciary Committee's 
fair and thorough process. We review extensive background material on 
each nominee. All Senators on the Committee, Democratic and Republican, 
have the opportunity to ask the nominees questions at a live hearing. 
Senators also have the opportunity to ask questions in writing 
following the hearing and to meet with the nominees. All of these 
nominees which the Committee reported to the Senate have a strong 
commitment to the rule of law and a demonstrated faithfulness to the 
Constitution. All have the support of their home State Senators, both 
Republican and Democratic. They should not be delayed for weeks and 
months needlessly after being so thoroughly and fairly considered by 
the Judiciary Committee.
  They include several nominees to fill judicial emergency vacancies, 
including Paul Engelmayer and William Kuntz of New York, Michael Simon 
of Oregon, Richard Brooke Jackson of Colorado, Kathleen Williams of 
Florida, and Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Texas, as well as Henry Floyd of 
South Carolina to the Fourth Circuit. The nomination of Professor Liu 
being filibustered by Republican leadership is also to fill a judicial 
emergency vacancy.
  Those nominees who have the support of home State Republican Senators 
include Bernice Donald of Tennessee to the Sixth Circuit, Henry Floyd 
of South Carolina to the Fourth Circuit, Sara Lynn Darrow of Illinois, 
Kathleen Williams of Florida, Nelva Gonzales Ramos of Texas, John 
Andrew Ross of Missouri, Timothy Cain of South Carolina, Nannette 
Jolivette Brown of Louisiana, and Nancy Torresen of Maine. In spite of 
that support, we are unable to secure consent from the Republican 
leadership to consider and confirm them.
  Of the judicial nominations we have been able to get the Senate to 
consider this year almost 70 percent were delayed from last year. We 
have only been able to confirm eight judicial nominees that had 
hearings and were reported for the first time this year. So when some 
say we are taking ``positive action'' on large percentages of nominees, 
what this shows is how many unobjectionable nominees were stalled last 
year by objections from the minority.
  We could have made significant progress helping Americans seeking 
justice in our Federal courts before

[[Page S3419]]

this recess. Sadly, it is a missed opportunity for Senators across the 
aisle to have joined together with us and worked with the President to 
provide needed judicial resources.

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