[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15846-15847]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

NOMINATION OF ANDREA R. WOOD TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE FOR THE 
                     NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS

                                 ______
                                 

  NOMINATION OF MADELINE HUGHES HAIKALA TO BE UNITED STATES DISTRICT 
               JUDGE FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ALABAMA

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Manchin). Under the previous order, the 
Senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following 
nominations, which the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read the nominations of Andrea R. 
Wood, of Illinois, to be United States District Judge for the Northern 
District of Illinois, and Madeline Hughes Haikala, of Alabama, to be 
United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, there will be 30 
minutes of debate equally divided in the usual form.
  The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I know it is several minutes past 5. I 
doubt very much if we will use the 30 minutes. We will probably be able 
to yield back time so the vote can be at 5:30, although I am not making 
that request at this point.
  Listening to the distinguished chair of the Appropriations Committee, 
the senior Senator from Maryland, I had to agree with everything she 
was saying. This is the fourteenth day of the government shutdown, and 
by refusing to pass a clean continuing resolution to fund the 
operations of the Federal government, Republicans continue to threaten 
the critical functioning of all three branches of government.
  With this ongoing shutdown of the entire Federal government, a 
handful of ideologues in the House of Representatives are holding the 
entire judicial system hostage and this threatens our entire democracy.
  One critical problem is that we have more than 90 judicial vacancies, 
including 39 that have been designated as emergency vacancies due to 
high caseloads by the nonpartisan Administrative Office of the Courts.
  While we will vote to confirm two additional judges today, we are 
moving far too slowly and are not keeping pace with the urgent needs of 
our Federal judiciary. We must do better.
  Both of the district court nominees we are voting on today have been 
nominated to fill vacancies that were named judicial emergencies by the 
nonpartisan Administrative Office of the Courts. Andrea Wood is 
nominated to a judicial emergency vacancy in the U.S. District Court 
for the Northern District of Illinois. Since 2004, Ms. Wood has served 
in the Division of Enforcement of the Securities and Exchange 
Commission, currently as a senior trial counsel and previously as a 
senior attorney. Before joining the SEC, she spent 5 years in private 
practice as an associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Following law school, 
Ms. Wood served as a law clerk for Judge Diane P. Wood of the U.S. 
Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
  Ms. Wood earned her B.A., with honors, from the University of 
Chicago, and her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as 
articles editor of the Yale Law Journal. She has the bipartisan support 
of her home State Senators, Senator Durbin and Senator Kirk. Her 
nomination was approved by the Judiciary Committee by voice vote with 
no opposition to her confirmation expressed more than 2 months ago.
  Madeline Haikala is nominated to a judicial emergency vacancy in the 
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where she has 
served as a magistrate judge since 2012. Prior to her appointment, she 
worked at the Birmingham law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin, & White for 
22 years, first as an associate and subsequently as a partner. In 
addition, Judge Haikala has taught for approximately 7 years as an 
adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law.
  The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously rated 
Judge Haikala well qualified to serve on the U.S. District Court for 
the Northern District of Alabama, its highest rating. Judge Haikala 
also has the strong support of both of her Republican home State 
Senators, Senator Shelby and Senator Sessions. Like the other 
nomination we are voting on today, Judge Haikala's nomination was 
approved by the Judiciary Committee by voice vote with no opposition to 
her confirmation expressed more than 2 months ago.
  While I am pleased that we are finally getting to vote on these 
nominees, there remain far too many judicial vacancies. Because of the 
government shutdown, we have been unable to hold hearings, process, and 
approve nominees in the Judiciary Committee for the last two weeks. It 
does our country a serious injustice when we fail to provide our 
Federal courts with the resources it needs. Let us end this shutdown 
now so we can do what we were elected to do and carry out business on 
behalf of the American people.
  Let me tell my colleagues another thing that has happened. This 
afternoon, I got a call from the chief judge of the District of 
Vermont, the Federal district court. She wanted me to know they are 
going to run out of funds on Thursday. She is very worried about the 
growing opiate crisis in Vermont. If the courts run out of money, they 
are not going to be able to monitor and

[[Page 15847]]

test those awaiting trials in serious drug trafficking cases.
  Judge Reiss made it very clear that we are going to hear this from 
courts all over the country. We forget there are things our courts have 
to do and should do to keep the Presiding Officer safer and me safer, 
as well as everybody else. But we are saying, sorry, we are having this 
little political snit and we are not going to give you the money.
  I have always been proud of being a member of the Vermont bar. I have 
been proud of that membership during the time I was in private practice 
and during the time I was a prosecutor, but throughout it all, we 
always relied on the courts to do their work. We expected that if after 
Gideon v. Wainwright it was necessary to appoint counsel for a criminal 
defendant, the counsel would be there. We expected that if one had a 
case they wanted heard, there would be a court that could hear it. That 
is not going to happen. We are going to have criminal cases that are 
going to get backed up because we don't have the personnel there, and 
behind those criminal cases are going to be people--Republicans, 
Democrats, Independents--who are going to have legitimate civil cases 
that they need to bring to court to be resolved and they are not going 
to be heard for years and years and years.
  Some of the handful of ideologues who are holding up our ability to 
fund the government go down and have a disturbing and disgraceful rally 
on the Mall, where they ridicule the President of the United States. 
They distort their own roles in how they closed down the government, 
and then they try to use brave veterans as pawns, do they know what 
they are doing to the image of the United States?
  I see the distinguished Senator from Illinois on the floor. One of 
these judges is from his state. I don't know if he wishes to speak.
  I would say once more, all Americans who rely on our court and our 
judicial system know our system of justice is facing a great danger not 
because of anything the courts have done but because of a small group 
of ideologues in the House of Representatives who are holding this 
budget hostage.
  I yield the floor and 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. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MERKLEY. I ask unanimous consent to yield back all remaining 
time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Hearing no further debate, the question is, Will the Senate advise 
and consent to the nomination of Andrea R. Wood, of Illinois, to be 
United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois?
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the question is, 
Will the Senate advise and consent to the nomination of Madeline Hughes 
Haikala, of Alabama, to be United States District Judge for the 
Northern District of Alabama?
  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Missouri (Mrs. 
McCaskill) is necessarily absent.
  Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from North Carolina 
(Mr. Burr), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), the Senator from 
South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), 
the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. 
Moran), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from 
Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  Further, if present and voting. the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``yea.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Donnelly). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 90, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 217 Ex.]

                                YEAS--90

     Ayotte
     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Baucus
     Begich
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Boxer
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Chambliss
     Chiesa
     Coats
     Cochran
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Donnelly
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Flake
     Franken
     Gillibrand
     Grassley
     Hagan
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Heinrich
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Johanns
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson (WI)
     Kaine
     King
     Kirk
     Klobuchar
     Landrieu
     Leahy
     Lee
     Levin
     Manchin
     Markey
     McCain
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Nelson
     Paul
     Portman
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sessions
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Thune
     Toomey
     Udall (CO)
     Udall (NM)
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--10

     Alexander
     Burr
     Coburn
     Graham
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     McCaskill
     Moran
     Rubio
     Vitter
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motions to 
reconsider are considered made and laid upon the table. The President 
will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

                          ____________________