[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18212]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           JUDICIAL NOMINEES

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Michigan is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I thank my colleague and dear friend 
from Maryland. She has been waiting to speak for a long time. I 
appreciate her graciousness in allowing me to speak for a moment.
  This is a very unfortunate time in the State of Michigan. We have 
traditionally had bipartisan cooperation on issues that affect our 
wonderful State and the people we all represent. I cannot think of a 
time when we have had in previous Congresses Republican colleagues on 
the House side doing press conferences and attacking the Senators. It 
is very unfortunate.
  Let me speak first to the numbers our distinguished majority leader 
just used and other Members on the other side of the aisle. It is my 
understanding those numbers about backlogs were prior to the filling of 
four vacancies on the Sixth Circuit. So we are looking at a situation 
where there have been four vacancies already filled. Retired judges are 
used to hear cases.
  We do not hear about the kind of backlog and the concern about the 
lack of justice going on in the Sixth Circuit. I believe that is 
absolutely inaccurate. What we do hear is a great concern about playing 
politics.
  There was an effort to hold up all the nominees to the Sixth Circuit 
under President Clinton. Now, coming into this Senate, Senator Levin 
and I have attempted to work with the administration to have a 
bipartisan solution to stop this. That is what we have been about, not 
going on with partisanship, which is what is happening now. Rather than 
working with us for a bipartisan solution, we see partisan press 
conferences. We see our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and 
unfortunately our colleagues in the House on the Republican side, 
holding press conference after press conference attacking us, rather 
than working things out.
  How do we work it out? Well, many States have bipartisan commissions 
to recommend nominees to the President, working with the Senators. We 
have put forward the Wisconsin motto which has the Senators from one 
party placing four people on a commission. The senior Republican in 
this case, Congressman Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin, who is a part of 
this process, nominates four. They have two people from the Wisconsin 
bar, and the heads of the law schools. It works. It has been embraced 
by the White House.
  It is disconcerting to me to see what has been agreed to and worked 
well in Wisconsin will not be allowed in Michigan. We know that in 
Washington State there is a commission. We know there are agreements in 
other States to work together with the Senators. But somehow in 
Michigan, instead of doing that, so our families, our workers, and our 
businesses can be represented and know that we will provide mainstream 
judges in a bipartisan way, we see unfortunate comments on the floor, 
we see misinformation, we see political press conferences over and over 
again.
  This is how we got to this situation. It was partisanship in the last 
Senate under President Clinton, holding up the nominees. We are trying 
to change that and say let's stop this.
  Instead of press conferences, I welcome colleagues in the Senate, as 
well as our House Members, to join us, to sit down and develop a motto 
such as Wisconsin and other States, where it works in a bipartisan way, 
to be able to put forward judges to fill these vacancies.
  It is important who is on the bench. This is not the President's 
prerogative alone, nor any individual Senator. It means we need to work 
together because our families are affected, our business community, 
issues of privacy, health care, business law, the environment. Many 
issues are affected, and so it matters who is on the court from 
Michigan. We simply ask that we be treated with fairness as other 
Senators in other States have been, and we will continue to work to 
that end.
  I yield back for my colleague from Maryland.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, how much time is remaining?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Ten minutes.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I claim such time for myself.

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