[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16762-16763]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

 NOMINATION OF ARTHUR J. SCHWAB, OF PENNSYLVANIA, TO BE UNITED STATES 
        DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 963, Arthur 
Schwab to be U.S. district judge; that the Senate vote immediately on 
the nomination; that upon the disposition of the nomination, the motion 
to reconsider be laid upon the table, the President be immediately 
notified of the Senate's action, and statements thereon be printed in 
the Record as though read

[[Page 16763]]

and that the Senate resume legislation session, with the preceding all 
occurring without any intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Arthur J. 
Schwab, of Pennsylvania, to be United States District Judge for the 
Western District of Pennsylvania.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays on the 
nomination.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Arthur J. Schwab, of Pennsylvania, to be United States District 
Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania? On this question, the 
yeas and nays have been ordered and the clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Akaka), the 
Senator from Georgia (Mr. Miller) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. NICKLES. I announce that the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. 
Cochran), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Helms), the Senator from 
Alaska (Mr. Murkowski), the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr. Smith), the 
Senator from Oregon (Mr.  Smith), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. 
Roberts) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 92, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 216 Ex.]

                                YEAS--92

     Allard
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Cantwell
     Carnahan
     Carper
     Chafee
     Cleland
     Clinton
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corzine
     Craig
     Crapo
     Daschle
     Dayton
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Fitzgerald
     Frist
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hollings
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Nickles
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Torricelli
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--8

     Akaka
     Cochran
     Helms
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Roberts
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The motion to reconsider is tabled. The 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Madam President, I yield such time as the Senator from 
Pennsylvania may require to make a brief statement.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I thank the majority leader.
  I have sought recognition to comment very briefly on the nomination 
of Arthur J. Schwab of Pittsburgh, PA. Mr. Schwab is an outstanding 
lawyer and will make an outstanding judge. His credentials include: 
Graduating cum laude from Grove City College; Order of Coif from the 
University of Virginia Law School; an extraordinary litigation record 
as a trial lawyer, appearing in some 22 States, in addition to 
Pennsylvania; in the Federal courts in Pennsylvania, he argued appeals 
in the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and 
Eleventh Circuit Courts. He has an extraordinary litigation background 
and will make an outstanding judge.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the 
qualifications of Arthur J. Schwab.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

       Arthur J. Schwab graduated cum laude from Grove City 
     College in 1968. He then attended the University of Virginia 
     law school, where he graduated Order of the Coif in 1972. 
     After law school he was an assistant district attorney with 
     the District Attorney's Office of Allegheny County. He then 
     became a partner in the law firm of Mansmann, Beggy, McVerry 
     & Baxter, later named McVerry, Baxter & Cindrich, from 1970 
     to 1988. He has also been Of Counsel to the law firm of 
     Tucker Arensburg, a shareholder of Grogan, Graffam, McGinley 
     & Lucchino, P.C. Currently, Mr. Schwab serves as the chief 
     counsel and chair of litigation at Buchanan Ingersoll, P.C., 
     in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
       Over the past 20 years, Mr. Schwab has developed a practice 
     in the areas of trade secrets, confidential information, 
     employment agreements, software copyright infringement, 
     trademark, unfair competition, and diversion of corporate 
     opportunities. He has tried cases in state and federal courts 
     in more than 22 different states, as well as in the Courts of 
     Common Pleas of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and in the 
     United States District Court for the Western District of 
     Pennsylvania. Mr. Schwab has also been responsible for cases 
     involving appeals to the United States Courts of Appeals for 
     the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and 
     Eleventh Circuits.
       Mr. Schwab is also actively involved in his local 
     community, including serving as the co-chair of the Senator 
     John Heinz Level of Giving Division of the United Way of 
     Allegheny County. From 1979 to 1988, Mr. Schwab began an 
     extensive pro bono project concerning Child Advocacy for the 
     Allegheny County Bar Association that produced, with the 
     assistance of 60 Reed Smith attorneys, over 3400 hours of 
     representation of indigent children.
       Once again, I believe that Arthur Schwab will be an 
     excellent addition to the federal bench and I urge my 
     colleagues to vote for his confirmation. Thank you.

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, today the Senate has confirmed its 76th 
and 77th new judges since the change in majority last summer, with the 
vote on Arthur Schwab, who is nominated to the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania and the vote earlier this morning on Jose Martinez, who is 
nominated to the Southern District of Florida. In less than 15 months 
we have confirmed more judges that the Republican majority confirmed in 
its final 30 months in the majority. We have been more than twice as 
productive as they were and Republicans are nonetheless complaining 
that we have not worked three or four times as fast as they did to fill 
vacancies their inaction perpetuated.
  The Senate has now confirmed more judges than were confirmed in all 
of 1989 and 1990, the first two years of the first Bush Administration, 
and almost 40 percent more confirmations than in the first 15 months of 
the Reagan or Clinton Administration, both of which were cooperating 
with a Senate majority of the same political party.
  Another stark comparison would be between how we have proceeded this 
year and how the recent Republican majority proceeded in the years they 
were in the Senate majority but the President was a Democrat. In the 
1996 session for example, the second full year in which the Republican 
majority was in control of progress on President Clinton's judicial 
nominees, the Republican majority allowed only 17 judges to be 
confirmed the entire year. Not a single circuit court judge was 
confirmed that entire session all year--not one. By contrast, just 
since January, in this the second session of this Congress, this 
Democratic Senate has already confirmed 180 percent more judges than 
were confirmed in the second year of the Republican majority. We have 
also already confirmed seven judges to the circuit courts, which is 
seven more than were confirmed in the 1996 session.

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