[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 11936-11937]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           JUDICIAL NOMINEES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am concerned about comments made by a 
Republican Senator yesterday suggesting that I have made a commitment 
that the Senate will confirm a specific number of judges in this 
Congress.
  Senator McConnell and I have a lot of private conversations on a lot 
of different subjects. Senator McConnell has told me that the number of 
judges confirmed and the way judges are handled in this Congress is 
very important to him. If that, in fact, is the case, that it is 
important to him, it is important to me, and I have told him that.
  The only way this Senate is going to run well is if the Republican 
leader and the Democratic leader have an understanding as to how things 
should proceed. There are certain things I feel strongly about. He 
knows what they are. I feel that he understands how I feel about those 
things. And I think the converse is true: If I think something is 
important, he thinks it is important.
  I reiterate, he believes the way judges are handled in this Congress 
is important to him. It is important to me. It is important to both of 
us for a number of reasons.
  He and I are both lawyers, and we both revere the Federal judiciary. 
We have worked with present members of the Supreme Court to work on 
increasing their pay. We have worked with them on a number of issues 
that are important to the administration of justice in this country. 
The Federal judiciary, really, is the third branch of our Federal 
Government, and it is entitled to great respect.
  Senator McConnell and I believe that the process for considering 
judicial nominees has become too partisan over the years. The way the 
Republican-controlled Senate treated President Clinton's judicial 
nominees was wrong. And, of course, Republicans have their grievances 
about the way Republican nominees have been handled. We could weigh 
them and say: You treated us worse than we treated you, and vice versa, 
but that does not solve the problem. In this regard, there is no need 
we look back to yesterday. We should focus on today and tomorrow, and 
that is what I intend to do.
  I do agree, without any reservation, with Senator McConnell that we 
should work to improve the confirmation process for a number of 
reasons, part of which is selfish; that is, I understand how the Senate 
works. Everyone is contemplating the election a year from this 
November. We are going to have a new President. It may be a Democrat, 
it may be a Republican. Those elections may tilt the balance of this 
Senate so that Democrats have more than just the one-vote majority we 
have now. But, Mr. President, I have been around here a long time. You 
never know what is going to happen in an election. We may find 
ourselves in the minority.
  So I think one reason we should put all this stuff behind us is we 
want to handle the judges the same way, no matter who is President or 
who is in control of the Senate. The House has nothing to do with 
judges as far as confirmation.
  I told Senator McConnell we would work hard to process judicial 
nominees in due course and in good faith, and I will continue to do 
that. To Senator McConnell, due course would mean 15 to 17 circuit 
court confirmations in this Congress because that is the historical 
average for Presidents during the last 2 years a President is in 
office. I cannot commit to a specific number. We should measure 
quality, not quantity. There is no reason we cannot confirm 15 nominees 
if, in fact, they are seen to be, on both sides, mainstream, capable, 
experienced nominees who are the product of bipartisan cooperation. But 
we should not confirm nominees who are out of the mainstream, who are 
unacceptable, for example, to home State senators.
  Now, I say, Mr. President, I think we started off this year in a good 
light. The President decided not to resubmit names he knew were 
problematic, and I say publicly, as I have said to Senator McConnell 
privately, that showed good faith. I appreciate that.
  We have confirmed three circuit court nominees in this Congress, 
including Debra Livingston of New York yesterday. There is a hearing 
for Judge Southwick that starts in 20 minutes. He is from Mississippi. 
That has been a seat which has been very difficult to fill. We have 
been through at least two nominees that I know of. I would hope this 
hearing goes well.
  I will continue to work in good faith. We presently have pending two 
judges on the appellate level. We have a number of district court 
judges, but we will focus today on circuit court judges--Mississippi, 
Southwick, whom I just talked about, and one who was sent up late last 
month from Texas. We are going to make sure we work to move these as 
quickly as possible. But I do not have a specific numerical goal, other 
than the outline the Republican leader has given. The Senate should 
fulfill its constitutional duty with care and confirm nominees who 
deserve a lifetime appointment to the Federal bench.
  Finally, let me say something about the two who are responsible for 
this Judiciary Committee, Senators Leahy and Specter. It is no secret--
it has already been written about--that Senator Leahy and Senator 
Hatch, when they were running this committee, had a difficult 
relationship. It did not work out well. It has also been written 
about--and very clear--that the relationship between Senator Specter 
and Senator Leahy is one of respect. They have done a lot of work 
together, good work together, and they get along extremely well, 
including with their work on judges.
  I do not want the situation on the floor today to show any disrespect 
to the two men running that committee, Leahy and Specter. They are 
doing the best they can. But I would hope that--in the Senate, Pat 
Leahy has been here a lot longer than I have. He has a distinguished 
career--the only Democratic Senator ever elected from the State of 
Vermont. He had a distinguished career as a prosecutor before he came 
here. He has a wonderful family. I care a great deal about him, and I 
have worked very closely with him over these many years, trying to help 
when I could with the work he has in the Judiciary Committee. And I 
will continue to do that. So I can only say positive things about 
Senator Leahy and Senator Specter as a result of what they are doing in 
that committee.
  I do want the record to reflect that--maybe it was a misunderstanding 
of one of the Senators on the other side of the aisle to say I was not 
living up to my word in not moving forward on judges. At least that is 
what I was told he said. If that is the case, I am sure he did not 
understand all the facts. The record should be very clear that I am 
going to do everything I can as the majority leader, working with 
Senator Leahy, to move these judges as quickly

[[Page 11937]]

as we can. If, in fact, there are problems that arise during the 
confirmation process, I cannot make myself the Committee of the 
Judiciary. I am only one Senator. I am not a member of that committee. 
That will be up to Senators Leahy and Specter to run as they see fit 
and to bring the nominations forward. I will do what I can, working 
with Senator Leahy, to expedite the judicial process, but I do not want 
to interfere with their work other than to say what I have said. I hope 
people understand the relationship Senator McConnell and I have as to 
how the Senate runs is extremely important. There are times, I can tell 
my colleagues without any reservation, when I wish I were the Speaker 
of the House. The Speaker of the House doesn't have to worry about the 
minority; they run over everybody. That is the way it is set up. But 
here, the Founding Fathers those many years ago when they came up with 
this unique experiment called the Congress, a bicameral legislature, 
these wise men set up this situation so that one House, if you are in 
control--if one party is in control, they can do anything they want, 
and in the other House--the Senate--if one party is in control, they 
can do some things they want but not everything, because the minority 
has tremendous power in the Senate. I know. I have been in the minority 
quite a bit.
  So I want the Record to reflect I will continue to work with Senator 
McConnell to move these judges as quickly as we can, and I hope this 
statement reflects my position on judges. I will do my very best, and 
if any problems arise regarding judges and people don't understand my 
position, if I haven't explained it clearly enough today, I will try to 
do so again if any questions arise.

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