[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         JUDICIAL CONFIRMATIONS

  Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, I rise today to express my concern over 
the slow pace of judicial confirmations in the Senate.
  The Bush administration deserves to be treated as fairly by the 
Democrat majority as the Republican majority treated the Clinton 
administration. Thus far, the facts show that the pace of confirmations 
is extremely slow and the number of vacancies is extremely high.
  The Senate has confirmed only 8 judges so far this year, compared to 
60 who have been nominated. During the Clinton administration, the 
Senate confirmed an average of 47 judges per year. In the first year of 
the Clinton administration, the Senate confirmed 28 judges, which is 
about average when compared to the first year for Reagan and Bush I. In 
the final year of the Clinton administration, we confirmed 39.
  Given these numbers, it should not be surprising that the number of 
vacancies is much higher today than at the end of the Clinton 
administration. As of today, there are 109 vacancies for a vacancy rate 
of 12.7 percent, while at the end of the Clinton administration last 
year, there were only 67 vacancies for a 7.9 percent vacancy rate.
  The Senate confirmed almost the same number of judges for President 
Clinton as for President Reagan, 377 compared to 384. This is true even 
though Republicans controlled the Senate for six years of Clinton and 
six years of Reagan. In fact, while I was Chairman for the first six 
years of the Reagan administration, I made confirmations arguably my 
top priority. Yet, the numbers are comparable.
  The Democrat majority often notes that it has confirmed more circuit 
judges this year than the Senate did for the first year of the Clinton 
administration. While this is true, President Clinton nominated only 
five circuit judges in his first year in office, compared to 21 for 
President Bush so far this year. Also, in the first year of Clinton, 
the Democrats were in charge at the time. Last year, while Republicans 
were in control and it was an election year, the Senate still confirmed 
8 circuit judges, double the number we have confirmed so far this year.
  Under any reasonable evaluation, the numbers show that we are far 
behind this year. However, there is still time to act this session, and 
make the numbers fair with former Presidents.
  In the first year of each of the past three administrations, all 
judges nominated before the end of the August recess were confirmed 
that year. The only exception is one judge during the first year of the 
Clinton administration who received a negative American Bar Association 
rating, and even he was confirmed the next year. President Bush 
nominated 44 judges before the end of August, and to be consistent we 
should confirm these judges before we adjourn this year.
  One pending circuit court nominee is Judge Dennis Shedd, who was 
among President Bush's first set of nominees sent to the Senate on May 
9. He has been a very able district court judge for the past decade and 
was formerly the chief counsel and staff director of the Judiciary 
Committee. He has bipartisan support. Also, the position for which he 
has been nominated has been declared a judicial emergency by the 
Administrative Office of the Courts. In addition, the committee held a 
hearing in August on the nomination of Terry Wooten for the District 
Court in South Carolina. I sincerely hope both of these fine judicial 
candidates can be confirmed this year.
  In summary, I hope the Senate can act this year on many pending 
judicial nominees, and greatly reduce the extremely high vacancy rate 
that currently faces our Federal courts.

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