[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 53 (Thursday, April 18, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2782-S2784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
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NOMINATION OF ANALISA TORRES TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
______
NOMINATION OF DERRICK KAHALA WATSON TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
FOR THE DISTRICT OF HAWAII
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order the Senate will
proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations,
which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read the nominations of Analisa Torres, of New
York, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of
New York and the nomination of Derrick Kahala Watson, of Hawaii, to be
United States District Judge for the District of Hawaii.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will now be 15
minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form prior to votes on
the nominations.
The Senator from Vermont is recognized.
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, Monday's confirmation of Judge Beverly
O'Connell marked the 150th confirmation of a Federal trial court
nomination by President Obama. Thanks to Senate Republicans' concerted
effort to filibuster, obstruct and delay his moderate judicial
nominees, it took almost 1 year longer to reach this milestone than it
did when his Republican predecessor was serving as President, 10 months
in fact. I have repeatedly asked Senate Republicans to abandon their
destructive tactics. Their unwillingness to do so shows that Senate
Republicans are still focused on obstructing this President, rather
than helping meet the needs of the American people and our judiciary.
The ability of hardworking Americans to get their day in court and
have their rights protected should not be subject to this kind of
wrongheaded, partisan obstructionism. Today, the Senate is being
allowed to vote on just 2 of the 15 judicial nominees ready for
confirmation. Ten of the judicial nominees confirmed this year could
and should have been confirmed last year. There are still four judicial
nominees in that category, who are part of the backlog on which Senate
Republicans insist on maintaining. And like so many of President
Obama's district court nominees, Analisa Torres and Derrick Watson have
had to wait more than 60 days after being voted on by the Judiciary
Committee to be considered by the Senate. These systematic delays help
explain why we remain more than 20 confirmations behind the pace we set
with President Bush's nominees. We can make up much of that ground if
Senate Republicans would just agree to a vote on all 15 nominees
currently pending on the Executive Calendar. All of them received
bipartisan support in committee, and all but one were unanimously
approved by the committee. There is no good reason for further delay,
especially at a time when judicial vacancies remain at 85.
Let us clear the backlog of judicial nominees ready for confirmation.
Republicans have recently started pointing to 2004. In 1 month in 2004,
a presidential election year, we were able to clear a backlog of
consensus nominees by confirming 20. This insistence on delay and
holding over consensus nominees from 1 year to the next has been
constant. Seventeen of the confirmations for which Senate Republicans
now seek credit over the past 2 years should have been confirmed more
than 2 years ago in the preceding Congress. That is when they allowed
only 60 judicial confirmations to take place during President Obama's
first 2 years in office, the lowest total for a President in over 30
years. Indeed, during President Obama's first year in office, Senate
Republicans stalled all but 12 of his circuit and district nominees.
That was the lowest 1-year confirmation total since the Eisenhower
administration, when the Federal bench was barely \1/3\ the size it is
today.
The fact is that we have these 15 nominees waiting for a vote. We
have 15 judgeships that can be filled so that hardworking Americans in
New York, Hawaii, Louisiana, California, Florida, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming can
have better access to justice. All Senate Democrats are prepared to
vote on all of these nominees today.
Judge Analisa Torres is nominated to serve on the US District Court
for the Southern District of New York. She currently serves as a New
York State Supreme Court Justice. Previously, she served as an acting
New York State Supreme Court Justice, a judge for the Civil Court of
the City of New York, and as a judge for the Criminal Court of the City
of New York. She received her A.B., magna cum laude, from Harvard
University and her J.D. from Columbia Law School. Judge Torres has the
strong support of her home State Senators, Senator Schumer and Senator
Gillibrand.
[[Page S2783]]
Derrick Kahala Watson is nominated to the US District Court for the
District of Hawaii. He currently serves as the chief of the Civil
Division in the US attorney's office in the District of Hawaii. Prior
to that, he was an assistant United States attorney in the same office.
From 1995 to 2000, he served as an assistant United States attorney in
the Northern District of California and served as deputy chief of the
Civil Division from 1999 to 2000. In addition to his service at the US
attorney's office, he was in private practice for more than a decade.
Derrick Watson received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his A.B.,
cum laude, from Harvard College. He has the support of his home State
Senators, Senator Hirono and Senator Schatz.
Both nominees were unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary
Committee by voice vote 2 months ago.
Like almost all of the other nominees pending on the Executive
Calendar, these are the kind of mainstream and consensus nominees who
should be confirmed quickly. For nearly 4 years vacancies have been at
or above 80, putting an unnecessary strain on our Federal courts.
Sequestration cuts have added to the pressure on our justice system.
Let us vote on the remaining nominees so that they can get to work for
the American people.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the
nomination of Derrick Kahala Watson to be a district judge for the U.S.
District Court of Hawaii. But before I discuss this nomination, I would
like to join with the rest of my colleagues in acknowledging the week
we have had and how trying it has been for all Americans. The horrific
bombing at the Boston Marathon, the targeting of Senate offices and the
President with mail containing poison, other actions at the Capitol,
and now this tragic explosion in Texas have captured our attention and
given us all perspective on what is important in life. Our hearts go
out to all the victims and their families.
Turning now to Mr. Watson's nomination, I thank Chairman Leahy and
Ranking Member Grassley of the Judiciary Committee for their quick
consideration, referring this nomination to the full Senate for a vote.
Mr. Watson was born in Hawaii. He attended Harvard college and Harvard
Law School and started a successful career in law in San Francisco, CA,
before returning to Hawaii to serve as an assistant U.S. attorney.
Mr. Watson testified before the Judiciary Committee in January at my
first hearing as a Senator. He demonstrated that he had the
qualifications, ability, and temperament to be an outstanding judge for
Hawaii.
Once he is confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Watson will be the only
person of Native Hawaiian descent serving as an article III judge, and
only the fourth to serve in the history of the United States.
In addition, once he joins the Federal bench in Hawaii, that court
will be the first majority Asian American Pacific Islander article III
court in American history.
I am proud to support Judge Watson, and I am happy that the Senate
will vote to confirm him today. I certainly urge all my colleagues to
cast a unanimous vote for his nomination.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Madam President, I am deeply honored to stand here
today in support of Analisa Torres's nomination to the United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York. I also want to
thank President Obama for acting on my recommendation and nominating
another superbly qualified female jurist to the Federal bench.
I know Judge Torres as a fair-minded woman of great integrity. Her
lifetime of public service and legal experience, serving as a jurist,
an attorney, and serving her community has earned her the respect of
her colleagues. Her body of work demonstrates her qualifications to
serve on the Federal bench.
Since 2000, she has served as a judge in various courts, including
the Criminal Court of the City of New York, and in 2012 she was elected
to a 14-year term as a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Judge
Torres has previously worked in private practice, as a law clerk, and
as a teacher. In her current role, she has exemplified pragmatism and
has demonstrated a consistent commitment to thoughtful, sound and fair
reasoning.
In addition to her professional work, she has shown an enduring
commitment to her community.
There is no question that Judge Torres is extremely well qualified
and well suited to serve as a Federal court judge. I strongly believe
this country needs more women like her serving in the Federal
judiciary--an institution I believe needs more exceptional women.
Today, women make up only 30 percent of the Federal bench.
According to the National Women's Law Center, only 66 women of color
currently serve as active Federal judges--that is less than 10 percent
of the Nation's active Federal bench.
We have to do better.
Judge Torres's nomination has been pending before this body for over
150 days. I urge my colleagues to put aside partisan differences and
help us move forward on the 14 judicial nominees who have been forced
to deal with this unprecedented delay.
I remind my colleagues that greater diversity, of gender, ethnicity
and professional backgrounds, are not just ideals that we should aspire
to, but steps we must take to have a judiciary that is more diverse,
and more reflective of the great country we live in. I have no doubt
that having Judge Torres serving in the Federal judiciary will bring us
closer to that goal.
I was proud to recommend her for this position. I urge all my
colleagues to join me and vote in support of her nomination.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I will be voting for both of these
nominees for judges, but I would like to make some comments because I
hear rumblings of how Senate Republicans are obstructing judicial
nominees. I would just like to remind my colleagues of how well we are
proceeding.
Today the Senate will consider two more judicial nominations. These
nominations are people, as I just said, I am going to approve. This is
the third of this week, and with today's expected action we will have
confirmed 4 circuit and 9 district nominees during this Congress, for a
total of 13. At this point in 2005, during President Bush's second
term, the Senate had confirmed not 13 like now, with us, not 9, not 4,
but only 1 judicial nominee. So that would be a record of 13 for this
administration and 1 for a counter time during the second Bush
administration.
As I stated last week, the quick pace of this year comes on top of a
very productive 112th conditioning, in which 111 judges were confirmed.
That was more judges confirmed than any other Congress going all the
way back 20 years. Overall, with today's actions, we will have
confirmed 184 judicial nominees. Divide it this way, 34 circuit judges
and now 150 district judges. The Senate has defeated only 2 nominees.
That is a record of our passing 184 to 2 that have not been approved.
That is a .989 batting average. So I do not know who is shedding tears
around here, but they ought to look at the record.
Other nominees are still being considered by the Senate and a few
remain in committee. I note we have a hearing scheduled next week for
another circuit and district judge, so we are continuing to move
forward. But even counting those pending nominations, the President has
a confirmation rate that is comparable to that of President George W.
Bush, President Clinton, and exceeds that of President George H.W.
Bush.
Again, there is no credible basis to say this President is being
treated differently from previous Presidents. What is different,
though, in the case of this President is the manner in which he has
allowed vacancies to accumulate before submitting nominations. It is
about time that down at the White House they get down to work, decide
who they are going to nominate, and get the nominations up here. His
failure to make judicial nominations a priority in his first year when
Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate resulted in an
increase of vacancies. That was not the fault of Senate Republicans.
Throughout his administration it has been the case that a majority of
vacancies have had no nominees. Presently, do you know that three of
four vacancies have no nominees up here?
[[Page S2784]]
For the 36 vacancies categorized as ``judicial emergencies,'' there
are only 8 nominees. So I just want to set the record straight before
the vote for these nominees because I get tired of these crocodile
tears being shed. Particularly, I am sick of hearing about us not
moving on judges when three-fourths of them we don't even have the
nominees here yet. So quit crying.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I share the perplexed attitude of the
Senator from Iowa about our friends' concern about nominations. The
President has even talked about it. I have gone back and looked at the
record. There was a Washington Post article 3 weeks ago. I gave a copy
of it to the President. This is what it said: On Cabinet nominations,
this Senate has considered President Obama's Cabinet nominations more
rapidly than they did the last three Presidents. That is Cabinet
nominations. Never in the history of the Senate has the Senate denied a
Cabinet nomination by filibuster, with the exception of the Democrats
blocking John Bolton in the George W. Bush administration. So the
President is treated better on Cabinet nominations.
Evidence from the Congressional Research Service says President
Obama's circuit judges in his first term were considered more rapidly
than President George W. Bush's circuit judges. Senator Grassley just
pointed out that in the second term of President Bush he had 1 judge
confirmed by this time; President Obama has 13.
On district judges, according to the Congressional Research Service,
during the first term of President Obama his district judges were
considered a little more slowly than President George W. Bush's, but
the Senate changed the rules earlier this year to cut down the
postcloture debate time to make it easier to bring judges to the floor
and get them through more rapidly. Perhaps that is why the score is 13
to 1, with Obama getting 13 judges and Bush getting 1 in the same
period of time in the second term.
I do not know where this is coming from. In addition, we have never
blocked a district judge by filibuster--neither party in the history of
the Senate. In the circuit judges we never blocked a circuit judge
until George W. Bush made some nominations about the time I came to the
Senate 10 years ago, and the Democrats started it. They caused Miguel
Estrada to be blocked and a number of others, and they brought up
cloture motions time after time and we had a gang of 6, 8, 10 or 14 who
slowed it all down. But still the score is 5 to 2; 5 Republican judges
blocked for confirmation by the Democrats under President Bush, and 2
by Republicans with President Obama.
We worked pretty hard for the President to confirm his nominations.
We had two sets of rules changes, and we have a number of expedited
nominations which come now to the desk. We had about 170 nominations
that have been completely removed from Senate confirmation. I would
think the Obama administration would be thanking the Senate for its
work to make it easier for any President to get confirmations. In any
event, when we are talking about Cabinet Members, President Obama is
being better treated than the last three Presidents. When we are
talking about circuit judges he is better treated than George W. Bush.
When we are talking about district judges he is treated a little worse
in his first term than George W. Bush, but we changed the rules to
speed up district judges. The score in the second term, as I have said
twice now, is Obama 13, Bush 1--Obama way ahead.
I like to see confirmations move ahead. I hope I do not hear this
much more, when the record shows that in fact it is a manufactured
crisis.
I yield the floor.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent all time be
yielded back.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Analisa Torres, of New York, to be United States District Judge for
the Southern District of New York?
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the Watson
nomination.
Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There appears to be a sufficient second.
There is a sufficient second.
The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination
of Derrick Kahala Watson, of Hawaii, to be United States District Judge
for the District of Hawaii?
The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant bill clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Boxer),
the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Cowan), the Senator from New Jersey
(Mr. Lautenberg), and the Senator from Massachusetts ( Ms. Warren) are
necessarily absent.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Moran).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber
desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 106 Ex.]
YEAS--94
Alexander
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Chambliss
Coats
Coburn
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Graham
Grassley
Hagan
Harkin
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Inhofe
Isakson
Johanns
Johnson (SD)
Johnson (WI)
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Lee
Levin
Manchin
McCain
McCaskill
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rockefeller
Rubio
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Vitter
Warner
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
NOT VOTING--6
Boxer
Burr
Cowan
Lautenberg
Moran
Warren
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table, and the
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
Vote Explanation
Mr. COWAN. Madam President, I was necessarily absent from
votes during today's session. Had I been present for the votes on
amendments relating to S. 649, the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act
of 2013 I would have opposed the Barrasso amendment, S. Amdt. 717, and
I would have supported the Harkin-Alexander amendment, S. Amdt. 730.
Also, I would have supported the nomination of Analisa Torres to be
United States District Judge for the Southern District of New
York.
____________________