[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader for his help in 
connection with the confirmation of members to the Sentencing 
Commission. I am glad a cloture petition turned out not to be 
necessitated by anonymous Republican opposition and delay but regret 
that it has taken so long and so much attention to follow through on 
this matter.
  Last night, the Senate finally considered and confirmed the 
President's nomination of Beryl Howell to a second term on the U.S. 
Sentencing Commission. We also proceeded with the confirmation of the 
nomination of Dabney Friedrich, a former staffer of Senator Hatch and 
associate White House counsel.
  Last month, the President finally sent these nominations to the 
Senate to fill preexisting vacancies on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. 
Both these nominees were serving on the Commission, having been 
recessed appointed by the President in the last month of the 109th 
Congress. Regrettably the White House had delayed for many months 
making the nominations last year. Had the President sent the Senate 
these nominations in a timely fashion, their recess appointments would 
not have been necessary and we could have confirmed both of these 
nominees in the last Congress.
  The nonpartisan nature of the Sentencing Commission is preserved by 
making sure its membership is balanced and includes experienced 
Commissioners who stick to the merits and command the respect of both 
Congress and the Judiciary. I look forward to the President nominating 
such a person on the recommendation of the ranking Republican member of 
the Judiciary Committee so that the final vacancy may be appropriately 
filled.
  Commissioner Howell graduated from Bryn Mawr College and Columbia 
University School of Law, clerked for Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise on 
the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. She served with 
distinction as a Federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in 
the Eastern District of New York, earning a number of commendations for 
her work. She later served for almost 10 years as a member of the 
Senate Judiciary staff. She earned the respect of Senate and House 
Republicans and Democrats. Besides now serving as a member of the 
Sentencing Commission, she is also managing director and general 
counsel of the Washington, DC, office of Stroz Friedberg, LLC, one of 
the leading cybersecurity and forensic firms in the country.
  Commissioner Friedrich assumes her post having served in the White 
House counsel's office and having previously served on Senator Hatch's 
Senate Judiciary Committee staff. I believe her husband is a political 
deputy in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. I wish 
her well in her new position.
  The Sentencing Commission has important work to do. Federal judges 
are still wrestling with the Booker decision, which made the Federal 
Sentencing Guidelines advisory, rather than mandatory, and the 
Commission is once again preparing a report to Congress on the unjust 
disparity of crack versus powder cocaine sentencing.
  I congratulate the nominees and their families on their confirmations 
last night.

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