[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19746]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 19746]]

                              NOMINATIONS

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I listened very carefully to the 
comments from the majority whip relative to the next business at hand, 
the foreign operations appropriations bill and the issue of holding 
that up because of judges. It is my understanding that there are 52 
judges in committee. Currently, 8 have been passed out of committee. It 
seems the committees could work more expeditiously to get the judges 
out of committee so we can address them. I understand 12\1/2\ percent 
of all Federal judicial positions are open at this time. As I 
indicated, there are 52 pending nominations with only 8 confirmations.
  The reality is the committees have a lot of work to do. I encourage, 
as a consequence of that, they be expeditious so we can get on with the 
business at hand.

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