[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 145 (Monday, October 14, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7471-S7473]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXECUTIVE SESSION
______
NOMINATION OF ANDREA R. WOOD TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
______
NOMINATION OF MADELINE HUGHES HAIKALA TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT
JUDGE FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Under the previous order, the
Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following
nominations, which the clerk will report.
The assistant legislative clerk read the nominations of Andrea R.
Wood, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern
District of Illinois, and Madeline Hughes Haikala, of Alabama, to be
United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 30
[[Page S7472]]
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I know it is several minutes past 5. I
doubt very much if we will use the 30 minutes. We will probably be able
to yield back time so the vote can be at 5:30, although I am not making
that request at this point.
Listening to the distinguished chair of the Appropriations Committee,
the senior Senator from Maryland, I had to agree with everything she
was saying. This is the fourteenth day of the government shutdown, and
by refusing to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the
operations of the Federal government, Republicans continue to threaten
the critical functioning of all three branches of government.
With this ongoing shutdown of the entire Federal government, a
handful of ideologues in the House of Representatives are holding the
entire judicial system hostage and this threatens our entire democracy.
One critical problem is that we have more than 90 judicial vacancies,
including 39 that have been designated as emergency vacancies due to
high caseloads by the non-partisan Administrative Office of the Courts.
While we will vote to confirm two additional judges today, we are
moving far too slowly and are not keeping pace with the urgent needs of
our Federal judiciary. We must do better.
Both of the district court nominees we are voting on today have been
nominated to fill vacancies that were named judicial emergencies by the
nonpartisan Administrative Office of the Courts. Andrea Wood is
nominated to a judicial emergency vacancy in the U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of Illinois. Since 2004, Ms. Wood has served
in the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, currently as a senior trial counsel and previously as a
senior attorney. Before joining the SEC, she spent 5 years in private
practice as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Following law school,
Ms. Wood served as a law clerk for Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Ms. Wood earned her B.A., with honors, from the University of
Chicago, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as
articles editor of the Yale Law Journal. She has the bipartisan support
of her home State Senators, Senator Durbin and Senator Kirk. Her
nomination was approved by the Judiciary Committee by voice vote with
no opposition to her confirmation expressed more than 2 months ago.
Madeline Haikala is nominated to a judicial emergency vacancy in the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where she has
served as a magistrate judge since 2012. Prior to her appointment, she
worked at the Birmingham law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin, & White for
22 years, first as an associate and subsequently as a partner. In
addition, Judge Haikala has taught for approximately 7 years as an
adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law.
The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated
Judge Haikala well qualified to serve on the U.S. District Court for
the Northern District of Alabama, its highest rating. Judge Haikala
also has the strong support of both of her Republican home State
Senators, Senator Shelby and Senator Sessions. Like the other
nomination we are voting on today, Judge Haikala's nomination was
approved by the Judiciary Committee by voice vote with no opposition to
her confirmation expressed more than 2 months ago.
While I am pleased that we are finally getting to vote on these
nominees, there remain far too many judicial vacancies. Because of the
government shutdown, we have been unable to hold hearings, process, and
approve nominees in the Judiciary Committee for the last two weeks. It
does our country a serious injustice when we fail to provide our
Federal courts with the resources it needs. Let us end this shutdown
now so we can do what we were elected to do and carry out business on
behalf of the American people.
Let me tell my colleagues another thing that has happened. This
afternoon, I got a call from the chief judge of the District of
Vermont, the Federal district court. She wanted me to know they are
going to run out of funds on Thursday. She is very worried about the
growing opiate crisis in Vermont. If the courts run out of money, they
are not going to be able to monitor and test those awaiting trials in
serious drug trafficking cases.
Judge Reiss made it very clear that we are going to hear this from
courts all over the country. We forget there are things our courts have
to do and should do to keep the Presiding Officer safer and me safer,
as well as everybody else. But we are saying, sorry, we are having this
little political snit and we are not going to give you the money.
I have always been proud of being a member of the Vermont bar. I have
been proud of that membership during the time I was in private practice
and during the time I was a prosecutor, but throughout it all, we
always relied on the courts to do their work. We expected that if after
Gideon v. Wainwright it was necessary to appoint counsel for a criminal
defendant, the counsel would be there. We expected that if one had a
case they wanted heard, there would be a court that could hear it. That
is not going to happen. We are going to have criminal cases that are
going to get backed up because we don't have the personnel there, and
behind those criminal cases are going to be people--Republicans,
Democrats, Independents--who are going to have legitimate civil cases
that they need to bring to court to be resolved and they are not going
to be heard for years and years and years.
Some of the handful of ideologues who are holding up our ability to
fund the government go down and have a disturbing and disgraceful rally
on the Mall, where they ridicule the President of the United States.
They distort their own roles in how they closed down the government,
and then they try to use brave veterans as pawns, do they know what
they are doing to the image of the United States?
I see the distinguished Senator from Illinois on the floor. One of
these judges is from his state. I don't know if he wishes to speak.
I would say once more, all Americans who rely on our court and our
judicial system know our system of justice is facing a great danger not
because of anything the courts have done but because of a small group
of ideologues in the House of Representatives who are holding this
budget hostage.
I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. MERKLEY. I ask unanimous consent to yield back all remaining
time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Hearing no further debate, the question is,
Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Andrea R. Wood,
of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern
District of Illinois?
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is,
Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Madeline Hughes
Haikala, of Alabama, to be United States District Judge for the
Northern District of Alabama?
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
There is a sufficient second.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mrs.
McCaskill) is necessarily absent.
Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the
Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from North Carolina
(Mr. Burr), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the Senator from
South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe),
the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr.
Moran), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from
Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
[[Page S7473]]
Further, if present and voting. the Senator from Tennessee (Mr.
Alexander) would have voted ``yea.''
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Donnelly). Are there any other Senators in
the Chamber desiring to vote?
The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 217 Ex.]
YEAS--90
Ayotte
Baldwin
Barrasso
Baucus
Begich
Bennet
Blumenthal
Blunt
Boozman
Boxer
Brown
Cantwell
Cardin
Carper
Casey
Chambliss
Chiesa
Coats
Cochran
Collins
Coons
Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Cruz
Donnelly
Durbin
Enzi
Feinstein
Fischer
Flake
Franken
Gillibrand
Grassley
Hagan
Harkin
Hatch
Heinrich
Heitkamp
Heller
Hirono
Hoeven
Johanns
Johnson (SD)
Johnson (WI)
Kaine
King
Kirk
Klobuchar
Landrieu
Leahy
Lee
Levin
Manchin
Markey
McCain
McConnell
Menendez
Merkley
Mikulski
Murkowski
Murphy
Murray
Nelson
Paul
Portman
Pryor
Reed
Reid
Risch
Roberts
Rockefeller
Sanders
Schatz
Schumer
Scott
Sessions
Shaheen
Shelby
Stabenow
Tester
Thune
Toomey
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Warner
Warren
Whitehouse
Wicker
Wyden
NOT VOTING--10
Alexander
Burr
Coburn
Graham
Inhofe
Isakson
McCaskill
Moran
Rubio
Vitter
The nomination was confirmed.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table. The President
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
____________________