[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 114 (Thursday, July 14, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, we have a problem in our court system. We 
currently have 83 judicial vacancies, and 29 of these are considered 
judicial emergency vacancies because they have been vacant so long or 
because the case backlog is so severe. There is a simple reason we have 
this problem: Senate Republicans refuse to do their job and confirm 
judicial nominees. This is the case from the Supreme Court, with the 
outrageous and unprecedented obstruction of Judge Merrick Garland, to 
the Federal Courts of Appeals, where it took more than a year for Judge 
Felipe Restrepo to be confirmed to the Third Circuit, down to the 
District Courts, where the number of vacancies has skyrocketed under 
Republican leadership.
  We haven't always had this problem, and there is no good reason we 
have it now. Eight years ago this week, when Democrats controlled the 
Senate and President Bush was in the White House, there were a total of 
39 vacancies in the court system. In the last 2 years of the Bush 
Presidency, the Senate confirmed 68 judges, compared to just 22 judges 
confirmed to date in President Obama's final 2 years.
  Pennsylvania currently has five pending judicial nominees. One, 
Rebecca Haywood, is an excellent nominee for the Third Circuit Court of 
Appeals. She is extremely well-qualified and deserves timely 
consideration and a vote. The other four are district court nominees, 
all distinguished judges nominated with bipartisan support from my 
colleague Senator Toomey. Two of these nominees, Susan Baxter and 
Marilyn Horan, passed out of the Judiciary Committee with unanimous 
support by voice vote. They are among the 24 judicial nominees on the 
Executive Calendar awaiting confirmation votes. These nominees have 
been vetted and unanimously deemed qualified by the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, and there is simply no legitimate reason to block their 
confirmation. They deserve an immediate vote.
  Pennsylvania's other two distinguished district court nominees, John 
Younge and Robert Colville, are equally qualified to be excellent 
Federal judges; yet, inexplicably, Senate Republicans have blocked them 
from even getting a committee vote. So they remain, for no legitimate 
reason, stuck with the 26 other judicial nominees awaiting committee 
consideration.
  This extreme level of obstructionism has serious consequences for 
Americans seeking access to the courthouse. In 2015, 361,689 cases were 
filed in the U.S. district courts, increasing the total number of 
pending cases by 3 percent in just a single year to 438,808. In 
Pennsylvania alone, 16,609 new cases were filed in our three districts 
in 2015. How are the courts supposed to give full and fair 
consideration to all of these cases if they are understaffed?
  The glacial pace of judicial confirmations is, quite simply, hurting 
the system of justice in this country. The obstruction is not only 
preventing access to justice by creating huge backlogs of cases, but is 
also damaging the integrity of the judiciary by politicizing nominees 
who should remain independent and nonpartisan. Senate Republicans need 
to do their job and immediately schedule votes to confirm the pending 
judicial nominees in Pennsylvania and around the country.

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