[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7731-7732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           NOMINATION PROCESS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to speak about 
the nomination process, to be followed by Senators Cornyn and Kyl.
  The situation is desperate at the present time, as the Senate has 
reverted to a longstanding policy in the last 2 years where the White 
House is controlled by one party and the Senate by another. The 
nominees of President Bush are being inappropriately blocked. During 
the course of the last 2 years of the Clinton administration, there 
were 15 circuit judges confirmed, 57 district judges, contrasted with 
only 7 circuit judges confirmed during the last 2 years of the Bush 
administration, and 38 district judges. For the entire 8 years, 
President Clinton has 65 circuit confirmations contrasted with only 58 
for President Bush. President Clinton had 305 district confirmations 
contrasted with only 241.
  Regrettably, this has been the pattern for the past 20 years--in the 
last 2 years of President Reagan's administration, when the Senate was 
controlled by Democrats; in the last 2 years of President Bush the 
first; and in the 6 years Republicans controlled the Senate during 
President Clinton's administration.
  The issue has been raised by Democrats about the inappropriate 
blocking by Republicans of the Clinton administration. I have agreed 
with them. I voted to confirm the Clinton judges who were qualified. 
The action taken was not appropriate, and I disagreed with my caucus. 
But now my caucus is right.
  An agreement had been reached--a good-faith agreement, so to speak--
by leadership to confirm three circuit judges between now and Memorial 
Day. The Democrats had chosen three nominees: Judge Helene White, Mr. 
Kethledge, and Justice Agee, who are really out of turn. It would be 
much more appropriate to take up Judge Conrad who has been waiting 290 
days for a hearing; Mr. Matthews, who has been waiting 240 days for a 
hearing; or Mr. Keisler, who has been waiting 675 days for a committee 
vote.
  The chairman obviously has the right to make the selection on the 
calendar, but it is important to note that this selection was made 
without any consultation with the Republicans, which is a sharp shift 
in practice from what happened during the last Congress when I chaired 
the committee and Senator Leahy was ranking. The White House wanted the 
confirmation hearings of Chief Justice Roberts to start on August 29. I 
had serious questions about the wisdom of doing that and consulted with 
Senator Leahy extensively. Senator Leahy was totally opposed. I made 
the decision to start the hearings after Labor Day, after due and 
appropriate consultation with the Democrats.
  Similarly, on the nomination of Justice Alito, the White House wanted 
the confirmation completed by Christmas. Again, I had severe concerns 
about hurrying the process. I consulted extensively with Senator Leahy, 
and then I made the decision to start the hearings in January. Let the 
record show after the confirmations were completed successfully, 
President Bush agreed with the judgment to hold the hearings when they 
were scheduled. That is the sort of comity which is indispensable if 
this body is to function.
  There are grave concerns raised about the scheduling of the 
confirmation of Judge Helene White because, simply stated, there is not 
enough time to do it and do it right. Judge White was nominated on 
April 15, less than a month ago. Her questionnaire was not received 
until April 25. The FBI investigation was not begun until April 25. The 
ABA report cannot be completed until May 19 at the earliest. After 
Judge White's hearing, which is scheduled hastily for May 7, the 
committee typically leaves the record open for 1 week, which would 
close the record on May 14. If there are questions for the record, 
Judge White would have 1 week to answer those questions, which would 
bring us to May 21. If the nomination is held over for a week, that 
would put us into June. Assuming the nomination is not held over for a 
week, that leaves only 2 days before May 23 for the committee to review 
her answers, schedule and hold a committee vote, and for the full 
Senate to vote on her nomination. No circuit court nominee has had 
hearings prior to their ABA report being received. The ABA report is 
not expected until at least May 19.
  In the past, the Democrats have been very vocal in opposing this kind 
of a schedule. When the schedule was set for Peter Keisler 33 days 
after his nomination, the Democrats cited the concern that the Keisler 
hearing should not be held so quickly in advance of the ABA 
recommendations: ``We should not be scheduling hearings for nominees 
before the Committee has received their ABA ratings,'' all of which is 
violated here.
  Senator Schumer said:

       So let me reiterate some of the concerns we expressed about 
     proceeding so hastily on this nomination. First, we have 
     barely had time to consider the nominee's record. Mr. Keisler 
     was named to this seat 33 days ago. So, we are having this 
     hearing with astonishing and inexplicable speed.

  Well, this hearing is even more astonishing and even more 
inexplicable. When we do not follow regular order,

[[Page 7732]]

we tend to get into trouble. The appropriate course would be to move to 
the nominations of Judge Conrad and Mr. Matthews in the Fourth Circuit 
where there is a judicial emergency.
  How much time remains, Mr. President?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator has 2 minutes 20 
seconds.

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