[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16512-16513]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     NOMINATION OF LAWRENCE VILARDO

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I rise to take a moment to congratulate 
the soon-to-be confirmed district judge for the Western District of New 
York, Larry Vilardo. He is from the Western District. It could not come 
too soon, because the Western District has been working without a 
single sitting Federal judge. That will finally change once Mr. Vilardo 
has been confirmed. He will now begin to hear cases and tackle the 
backlog that has been steadily building in the Western District. There 
are few more qualified to help take on this task than Larry Vilardo. 
That is because Mr. Vilardo is a classic Buffalonian--hard working, 
salt of the earth, honest, and grounded. He went to Canisius College 
and then took a brief detour out of Western New York to attend Harvard 
Law School and clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas 
before returning home and becoming one of Buffalo's leading legal 
lights, practicing at a firm he cofounded.
  Buffalo is where he was born, raised, and educated, and where he 
chose to raise his family. Buffalo is in his bones. They love him in 
Buffalo. When this vacancy occurred, I heard the voices in Buffalo 
chanting: Vilardo, Vilardo, Vilardo--not just the legal community but 
just about the whole community. Like so many other people from the 
region, the city has made him tough, level-headed, fair, and decent.
  As the first in his family to graduate from college, he adds an 
important element to the socioeconomic diversity of the court. The 
people of the Western District are incredibly lucky to have Larry 
Vilardo on the bench. I congratulate Larry Vilardo on this milestone of 
his career.

[[Page 16513]]

  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coats). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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