[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3955-3956]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

NOMINATION OF NORA BARRY FISCHER TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR 
                  THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, 
which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nomination of Nora Barry 
Fischer, of Pennsylvania, to be United States District Judge for the 
Western District of Pennsylvania.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, Nora Barry Fischer is an accomplished and 
well-respected attorney with over 30 years of legal experience. She is 
nominated to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western 
District of Pennsylvania. She received her law degree from Notre Dame 
University Law School, and graduated magna cum laude from St. Mary's 
College, Notre Dame, with a B.A. in history and humanistic studies. She 
has been an attorney with the law firm of Meyer, Darragh, Buckler, 
Bebenek & Eck, where she quickly rose through the ranks. She is 
currently a partner with the Pittsburgh law firm of Pietragallo, Bosick 
& Gordon, cochairing the firm's Defense Litigation Group. Ms. Fischer 
brings courtroom experience to the bench, having tried over 55 cases in 
State and Federal courts across the country. She has also served as a 
special master in state court and an arbitrator in Federal court on pro 
bono cases. She has been president of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of 
Allegheny County, served on the Executive Women's Council of 
Pittsburgh, and worked with the Alleghany County Bar Association to 
provide legal services to the underserved.
  I thank Senator Casey for expediting his consideration of this 
nomination. As a courtesy to Senator Specter, I asked the former 
majority leader to proceed to this nomination in December last year. 
Regrettably, Senator Frist chose not to do so and Senator Specter's 
chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee ended without this nomination 
having been confirmed. I am glad that, at long last, the Senate has 
turned its attention to this nomination and is granting its consent. I 
thank Majority Leader Reid for acting promptly.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I have sought recognition to speak in 
favor of the pending nomination of a distinguished Pennsylvania lawyer, 
Mrs. Nora Barry Fischer, who is to be considered for the position of a 
U.S. district judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
  Senator Casey and I strongly endorse her confirmation. She is a 
Pennsylvania native with a distinguished academic record. She graduated 
magna cum laude from St. Mary's College with a B.A. degree in 1973 and 
received a law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1976. She has had a 
distinguished law practice with the Pittsburgh firm of Meyer, Darragh, 
Buckler, Bebenek & Eck and later at Pietragallo, Bosick & Gordon. She 
served as an administrative partner in charge of recruitment and 
training and served as co-chair of the Defense Litigation Practice, 
which is Pietragallo Bosick's largest practice group. As Special Master 
for the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, she handled 
conciliations, nonjury and jury trials by consent of the parties, which 
gives her a leg up on analogous judicial duties.
  Mrs. Fischer is the recipient of a number of awards. The Pennsylvania 
Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession awarded her the 
Anne X. Alpern Award for her efforts to promote women in the law. The 
Pennsylvania Bar Association also recognized Mrs. Fischer for her work 
as co-chair of the Task Force on Health Care Delivery in Pennsylvania. 
She was named the recipient of the 2006 Professionalism Award by the 
Civil Litigation Section of the Allegheny County Bar Association for 
her faithful adherence to the highest standards of legal 
professionalism. She has been recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer 
and as one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania.
  The American Bar Association has unanimously rated Mrs. Fischer 
``well qualified'' to serve as a federal district court judge.
  She is precisely the type of nominee we are looking for, and I 
believe she will do very well in this very important position.
  Madam President, in the absence of any other Senator seeking 
recognition, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, am I correct that there is a vote 
ordered at 4:45 p.m.?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. That is correct.
  Mr. DORGAN. And is the time between now and 4:45 p.m. allocated?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. It is divided between the chairman and ranking 
member of the Judiciary Committee.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, if the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee is not here to take the time, let me take a moment. If he 
shows up, I certainly will yield to him.
  Mr. SPECTER. Madam President, I will be glad to yield to the Senator 
from North Dakota, especially since he called me the chairman.
  Mr. DORGAN. I was talking about the chairman who was about to show 
up, Senator Leahy.
  Mr. SPECTER. I withdraw my consent.


                                  BRAC

  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, I wish to make a point. My colleague 
from Oklahoma was talking about the BRAC funding. I think everybody 
here supports the BRAC funding. I certainly do. It is not a part of 
this agreement, but it is not, as the Senator from Oklahoma suggested, 
the Democrats' fault.
  Just so people understand, we inherited a heck of a mess. We 
inherited a huge mess. What was the mess? The fact is, last year, 10 of 
the appropriations bills never got to the floor of the Senate. We never 
got here. They never had any discussion on them. Had that happened, we 
would have had those appropriations bills passed and signed into law, 
and we wouldn't be discussing these issues.
  As a result of inheriting an unbelievable mess, we had to put 
together something between the House and the Senate. Let me make this 
point: That which was done between the House and the Senate included 
discussions with Republicans and Democrats on every single 
subcommittee. We engaged the staff of the Republicans and the Democrats 
as this was put together.
  I wanted to make that point. We inherited a mess. We have tried to 
make the most of it.
  This BRAC issue is going to get resolved. I support resolving it. The 
President is going to ask us for, apparently, $100 billion in the 
coming couple of weeks.
  Mr. INHOFE. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. DORGAN. Let me finish my thought.
  He is going to ask for $150 billion above that next year with respect 
to Iraq and Afghanistan.
  The point I am making is this: I understand that not just the Senator 
from Oklahoma but any number of Senators might come and say: I wish

[[Page 3956]]

this had been in it, I wish that had been in it. I personally wish a 
number of items had happened that didn't happen in this continuing 
resolution. But I was involved in working on it as chairman of the 
Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee. Last year, I was ranking 
member of the Appropriations Interior Subcommittee. That bill didn't 
get to the floor of the Senate. The Energy and water bill didn't get to 
the floor of the Senate. The bill that would have carried the BRAC 
funding didn't get to the floor of the Senate. Why not? Don't blame 
that on Democrats. We didn't control this Chamber last year.
  But I don't come to blame one side or the other. I only come to say 
we have tried to make the best of a bad situation. We were left with 
quite a mess. How did we make the best of this? We worked with the 
House and the Senate--bicameral; we worked with the staff of the 
Republicans and the staff of the Democrats, bipartisan--to try to see 
if we could put together something that would allow us to put the 
fiscal year 2007 appropriations bills behind us and move ahead, because 
we need to move immediately now to begin to put together the fiscal 
year 2008 appropriations bills. We need to do that now.
  So I only make the point that that is why we are here. No one likes 
it. We have done the best we could to make the best out of a bad 
situation.
  Mr. INHOFE. Madam President, will the Senator yield for a very 
friendly question?
  Mr. DORGAN. I will be happy to yield.
  Mr. INHOFE. We had authorized $5.7 billion to be spent this year on 
the BRAC process and $4.1 billion was taken out, with $1 billion put 
back. My question to you is: Can we have that made up without taking it 
out of a supplemental that would be pulling it out of other wartime 
activities? I would say that probably would work. That is my concern.
  Mr. DORGAN. Madam President, reclaiming my time, it is not going to 
be taken out of other funding in a supplemental. It will be added to a 
supplemental, I presume. The President has proposed sending us $250 
billion in emergency funding in two tranches, the first for this fiscal 
year and the second for the next fiscal year. My assumption is that 
everyone here believes those BRAC funds need to be dealt with and will 
be dealt with in a supplemental, not by taking it away from other 
military expenditures.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired.
  The question is, Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination 
of Nora Barry Fischer, of Pennsylvania, to be United States District 
Judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
  Mr. DORGAN. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Biden), 
the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), and the Senator from South Dakota 
(Mr. Johnson) are necessarily absent.
  Mr. LOTT. The following Senator was necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Wyoming (Mr. Thomas).
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Obama). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 96, nays 0, as follows:

                       [Rollcall Vote No. 47 Ex.]

                                YEAS--96

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brown
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeMint
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Klobuchar
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Sanders
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Tester
     Thune
     Vitter
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Webb
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--4

     Biden
     Inouye
     Johnson
     Thomas
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid on the table.
  The President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I was pleased that today a fellow 
Pennsylvanian, Nora Barry Fischer, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to 
serve on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of 
Pennsylvania. I was also happy to help expedite her nomination before 
the Judiciary Committee to help ensure a speedy consideration by the 
full Senate.
  Ms. Fischer is a native of Homestead, PA, and a graduate of Notre 
Dame Law School. In private practice, she has gained extensive 
experience in litigation and mediation. Ms. Fischer will bring a wealth 
of knowledge to the bench, and I am confident that she will serve 
western Pennsylvania and the Nation well.

                          ____________________