[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 151 (Tuesday, October 11, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6375-S6377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
NOMINATION OF JANE MARGARET TRICHE-MILAZZO
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today we are going to consider the
nomination of Jane Margaret Triche-Milazzo to be U.S. district judge
for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Before I make my remarks
regarding the nomination, I want to respond to some comments made on
the floor last Thursday evening because I am really amazed and very
disappointed by the continuing allegations that Senate Republicans are
delaying, obstructing, or otherwise blocking judicial nominations. One
Member stated that we ``filibuster everything and require 60 votes on
everything, including judges.'' That statement is without merit, and so
I am here to set the record straight.
We are making very good progress in the consideration and
confirmation of President Obama's judicial nominations. In fact, we
have taken positive action on 84 percent of President Obama's judicial
nominees. We heard from five judicial nominees in committee last week,
reported five more to the floor, and continue to hold regular votes on
judicial nominees. President Obama's circuit court nominees are
waiting, on average, only 66 days to receive a hearing. Now, compare
that to the 247 days President Bush's circuit nominees were forced to
wait. The same can be said for district court nominees, who have only
waited 79 days under President Obama. Nominees
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from President Bush waited on average 100 days for a hearing. You can
understand why I am disturbed because some people say there is a
Republican effort not to cooperate on moving these judges.
The reporting process has also favored President Obama's judicial
nominees. On average, President Obama's circuit court nominees have
only waited 116 days to be reported out of committee. President Bush's
circuit court nominees waited over 369 days to be reported. District
court nominees are no different. President Obama's nominees for the
district courts have waited 129 days, while President Bush's district
court nominees waited over 148 days.
The accusations that we are filibustering or requiring 60 votes on
everything including judges is not supported by the facts. We have
confirmed 43 judicial nominees this year. With the vote today we will
have confirmed over 66 percent of President Obama's judicial nominees
since the beginning of his administration. During our consideration of
the 98 judicial nominations submitted during this Congress, there have
been two cloture votes. One of those nominees was confirmed. The other
was withdrawn.
In the last Congress there were four cloture motions made in
relationship to 105 judicial nominations submitted. I remind my
colleagues that at least 18 of President Bush's judicial nominations
were subjected to cloture motions, many of them having multiple cloture
votes. According to my count, there were approximately 30 cloture votes
on Bush judicial nominees.
There has to be a double standard on the part of my colleagues who
somehow forget the history or somehow do not know how to count or
sometimes, if they do read the numbers, do not know what the numbers
mean.
Another colleague of mine stated last Thursday night that he could
not remember a time during his long service in the Senate when judges
would sit on the calendar for months. It was not that long ago, while
the current majority party was in the minority, when qualified nominees
sat on the Senate calendar for months. In most cases, when finally
afforded a vote, they received unanimous support. These included Juan
Sanchez, who was nominated for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania;
William Duffey, Jr., who was nominated for the Northern District of
Georgia; Mark Filip, who was nominated for the Northern District of
Illinois; Gary Sharpe, who was nominated for the Northern District of
New York; and James Robart, who was nominated for the Western District,
State of Washington. These are just a few of President Bush's district
court nominees who sat on the calendar for well over 3 months, yet
received unanimous support in their confirmation votes.
I wonder if my colleagues remember William Haynes, President Bush's
nominee to sit on the Fourth Circuit. He waited 638 days on the Senate
calendar in the 108th Congress alone before being returned to the
President. All in all, Mr. Haynes put his life on hold for 1,173 days
without ever receiving an up-or-down vote.
Another of President Bush's circuit court nominees, Raymond
Kethledge, waited 23 months before being confirmed by the Senate and
was then confirmed--can you believe it--on a voice vote.
I am not providing these facts to engage in a tit-for-tat, but when I
hear colleagues misstate facts and can't understand numbers and can't
count, I have to set the record straight.
Shortly we will vote on Jane M. Triche-Milazzo, who is nominated to
be the U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She
graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree from Nicholls State
University in 1977 and then worked for some time as an elementary
school teacher before beginning to work in her father's law office. In
1992, Judge Triche-Milazzo graduated with a juris doctorate from
Louisiana State University, Paul M. Herbert Law Center. She spent the
entirety of her legal career practicing at Risley Triche, LLC, first as
an associate and later to become a partner.
In 2008 she was elected judge for Louisiana's 23rd judicial district.
She is a Louisiana State District Court judge for Division D of the
23rd judicial district bench. She was the first female judge elected to
that judicial district bench. Judge Triche-Milazzo received a unanimous
``qualified'' rating from the ABA Committee on the Federal Judiciary,
so I am pleased to support this fine nominee and thank her for her
service.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, in a few moments the Senate has the
opportunity to proceed to the American Jobs Act. The bill the President
asked us to pass a month ago includes bipartisan proposals that have
received broad approval in the past from Members of both parties,
including road and bridge repairs, teacher retentions and extensions of
tax relief for businesses to encourage hiring. We should answer the
President's call and the American people's needs and act to help get
Americans back to work and grow the economy.
There is another unacceptable rate that we can help change to the
benefit of all Americans. That is the judicial vacancy rate. It now
stands at nearly 11 percent, with 92 vacancies on Federal courts around
the country. I will ask to have printed in the Record an editorial on
this topic entitled ``The Other Federal Crisis'' that appeared in
McClatchy--Tribune papers last week.
We can act today to bring down that rate dramatically by considering
and confirming 26 judicial nominations approved by the Senate Judiciary
Committee that are awaiting final Senate action.
Today we are voting on only one of those judicial 26 nominees. With
Republican agreement, all 26 could have been voted on today. Of the 25
judges who will remain on the Executive Calendar after today's vote, 21
were reported with the unanimous support of all Democrats and all
Republicans serving on the Judiciary Committee. All of them have the
support of their home State Senators, 10 include Republicans home State
Senators.
Today, the Senate will finally vote on the nomination of Jane Triche-
Milazzo to serve as a district judge in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern District of Louisiana. While I am pleased that we are finally
having a vote on Judge Triche-Milazzo's nomination, after 3 months of
unnecessary delay, more than two dozen well-qualified, consensus
nominees still await a Senate confirmation vote. At a time when
vacancies on Federal courts throughout the country have remained near
or above 90 for more than 2 years, delaying votes on these nominees
needlessly undermines the ability of our Federal courts to provide
justice to Americans around the country.
The Senate could take significant steps today to address this ongoing
crisis in judicial vacancies just by acting on the nominations
thoroughly vetted by the Judiciary Committee and reported with
bipartisan support. This week, with Republican cooperation, the
Judiciary Committee could report five more consensus nominees to fill
judicial emergency vacancies on the Eleventh Circuit and in Utah, as
well as vacancies in Missouri, Nebraska, and Washington. I have
repeatedly noted Senator Grassley's willingness to work with me to make
sure that the Judiciary Committee makes progress on nominations.
Regrettably, the Judiciary Committee's efforts to act on nominations
have not been matched by action by the Senate, where the Republican
leadership has refused promptly to consider even consensus nominations.
They are delayed for months. The Republican leadership's refusal to
promptly schedule votes on pending judicial nominations is a departure
from the Senate's action in regularly considering President Bush's
nominations, which we did whether the Senate had a Democratic or
Republican majority. At this point in George W. Bush's presidency, the
Senate had confirmed 162 of his nominees for the Federal circuit and
district courts, including 100 during the 17 months that I was chairman
of the Judiciary Committee during his first term. By this date in
President Clinton's first term, the Senate had confirmed 163 of his
nominations to circuit and district courts. In stark contrast, after
today's vote, the Senate will have confirmed only 105 of President
Obama's nominees to Federal circuit and district courts. In the next
year, we need to confirm 100 more of his circuit and district court
nominations to match the 205 confirmed during President Bush's first
term.
We can and must do better to address the serious judicial vacancies
crisis affecting Federal courts around the
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country. Nearly half of all Americans--136 million--live in districts
or circuits that have a judicial vacancy that could be filled today if
the Senate Republicans just agreed to vote on the nominations currently
pending on the Executive Calendar. As many as 21 states are served by
Federal courts with vacancies that would be filled by nominations
stalled on the Senate calendar. Millions of Americans across the
country are being harmed by delays in overburdened courts. The
Republican leadership should explain to the American people why they
will not consent to vote on the qualified, consensus candidates
nominated to fill these extended judicial vacancies.
The unnecessary delays in our consideration of judicial nominations
have contributed to the longest period of historically high vacancy
rates in the last 35 years. The number of judicial vacancies rose above
90 in August 2009, and it has stayed near or above that level ever
since. Vacancies are twice as high as they were at this point in
President Bush's first term when the Senate was expeditiously voting on
consensus judicial nominations. We must bring an end to these needless
delays in the Senate so that we can ease the burden on our Federal
courts so that they can better serve the American people.
Last week, the Senate voted to confirm Judge Jennifer Guerin Zipps,
who was nominated to fill the emergency judicial vacancy created by the
tragic death of Judge Roll in the Tucson, AZ, shootings. I was pleased
that, with cooperation from Republican Senators, the time from when the
Judiciary Committee reported Judge Zipps' nomination to full Senate
consideration was less than a month even including a recess period. All
nominations should move at that rate. It should not take a tragedy to
spur us to action to fill a judicial emergency vacancy. Indeed, the
time it took the Senate to consider Judge Zipps' nomination was in line
with the average time it took for the Senate to consider President
Bush's unanimously reported judicial nominations, 28 days. Her
nomination would not have been an exception during those years as it
regrettably has become today. President Obama's consensus nominations,
reported with the unanimous support of every Republican and Democrat on
the Judiciary Committee, have waited an average of 79 days on the
Executive Calendar before consideration by the Senate. Today's nominee
is a good example. She was reported unanimously on July 14. That was
nearly 3 months ago.
Last week, I invited Justice Scalia and Justice Breyer to appear
before the Judiciary Committee and discuss the important role that
judges play under our Constitution. Justice Scalia agreed that the
extensive delays in the confirmation process are already having a
chilling effect on the ability to attract talented nominees to the
Federal bench. Chief Justice Roberts has also described the
``persistent problem of judicial vacancies in critically overworked
districts.'' Hardworking Americans are denied justice when their cases
are delayed by overburdened courts. While people appearing in court are
waiting years before a judge rules on their case, they feel they are
being forced to live the old adage ``justice delayed is justice
denied.''
Today the Senate will confirm an experienced, consensus nominee who
could and should have received a vote prior to the August recess. Jane
Triche-Milazzo is nominated to fill a vacancy in the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Currently a Louisiana
State court judge, she previously spent 16 years in private practice in
her family's law firm in Napoleonville, LA. Judge Triche-Milazzo has
the bipartisan support of her home State Senators, Democratic Senator
Mary Landrieu and Republican Senator David Vitter. The Judiciary
Committee favorably reported her nomination without a single dissenting
vote almost 3 months ago. I expect that the Senate will confirm her
unanimously today.
We must do more to make progress in considering the other 25 judicial
nominations pending on the Senate's Executive Calendar. The excessive
number of vacancies has persisted in Federal courts throughout the
Nation for far too long. The American people should not have to wait
for the Senate to do its constitutional duty of confirming judges to
the Federal bench. With millions of Americans currently affected by the
vacancy crisis in our courts, there is serious work to be done.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
the editorial to which I referred.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Miami Herald, Oct. 2, 2011]
The Other Federal Crisis
In the month since Congress returned from the summer
recess, the crisis over the deficit and federal spending has
been the focus of attention, with ideological gridlock
obstructing progress. But partisan politics has also produced
a separate crisis in the nation's federal courts.
During September, the Senate confirmed a grand total of
three federal judges--leaving 95 vacancies in courthouses
around the country. This means that there are simply not
enough federal judges to handle the judicial workload,
resulting in justice delayed in both criminal and civil
cases. In 35 of those instances, including two district seats
in the Southern District of Florida, the courts have declared
a judicial emergency, meaning the dockets are overloaded to
the breaking point.
According to a recent report by the Congressional Research
Service, this is a historically high level of vacancies, and
the prolonged slowness in filling the empty seats makes the
Obama presidency the longest period of high vacancy rates in
the federal judiciary in 35 years.
Clearly, the Senate is not fulfilling its constitutional
duty to confirm judges. Some 58 Obama administration nominees
are pending in the Senate to fill the 95 vacancies.
Republican senators have complained that there should be a
nominee for every vacancy--fair enough--but that does not
explain why so many of the nominations have been stalled for
so long.
The Senate, of course, has a duty to ensure that nominees
are qualified. No one wants a ``fast-tracked'' judge hearing
cases. But it's hard to escape the conclusion that partisan
politics rather than the quality of the nominees is the root
of the problem when even consensus candidates must wait for
prolonged periods.
This Monday, for example, the Senate is expected to fill
some of those vacancies when six of the nominations go to the
floor for a vote, meaning there has been a preceding
agreement not to block the vote.
That generally leads to confirmation. Of those six, five
have been pending since May and June--and all of them were
approved with a unanimous vote by Democratic and Republican
members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In other words,
there is no question that the nominees have the
qualifications to do the job--so why the delay?
In the past, Democrats have been slow to approve nominees
from Republican presidents. But the record shows that
approvals for nominees by the last Republican president,
George W. Bush, moved faster even when Democrats had the
power to block confirmation.
At this point in the presidency of President Bush, 144
federal circuit and district court judges had been confirmed.
By comparison, according to Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy,
chairman of the Judiciary Committee, total confirmations of
federal circuit and district court judges during the first
three years of the Obama administration have been only 98.
``The Senate has a long way to go before the end of next year
to match the 205 confirmations of President Bush's judicial
nominees during his first term,'' he said.
This is a problem senators can solve easily. First, vote on
all 27 pending nominees who have already won committee
approval, beginning with those who received a unanimous vote.
Then move the other nominations to the floor without
unreasonable delay. The deterioration of the federal
judiciary because of partisan politics is inexcusable.
Mr. LEAHY. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________