[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17990-17991]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, after finally scheduling a few confirmation

[[Page 17991]]

votes on Federal judges last month, Senate Republicans have reverted 
back to holding up the confirmation process for no good reason. The 
American people and the entire Federal justice system depend on the 
Members of this body to fulfill our constitutional duty of providing 
advice and consent on judicial nominees. This senatorial duty is one we 
cannot neglect. However, that is exactly what has happened since Senate 
Republicans took over the majority this year.
  I had hoped that last month's judicial confirmation votes were an 
indication that Senate Republicans were finally ready to make progress 
on the backlog of well-qualified and uncontroversial nominees awaiting 
their confirmation vote. But again, this week, there is no sign of when 
the next judicial nominee will receive a vote. This is no way to lead 
the Senate. When Senate Democrats were in the majority during the last 
2 years of the Bush Presidency, we had already confirmed 34 judges by 
this same time. I have heard Republicans trying to justify their 
slowdown on judicial nominations by claiming they should somehow 
receive credit for 11 judges confirmed at the end of the last Congress. 
That excuse holds no water. It is well-established Senate precedent 
that all pending consensus nominees should be confirmed before the end 
of a year. And even if we added those 11 judges to the 9 confirmed this 
year, that would still bring us to only 20--which is a far cry from the 
34 Democrats confirmed in the last 2 years of the Bush administration.
  The process of confirming judges is about ensuring that the American 
people have a fully functioning judiciary. Instead, because of 
Republican obstruction, judicial vacancies have increased by more than 
50 percent since they took over the majority, and caseloads are piling 
up in courts throughout the country. Equally alarming is the fact that 
the number of judicial emergency vacancies since Senate Republicans 
took the majority has risen by 158 percent. These vacancies impact 
communities across America, and it is doing the most harm to States 
represented by at least one Republican Senator. Of the 66 current 
vacancies that exist, 48 of them--or more than 70 percent--are in 
States with at least one Republican Senator.
  We should take action right now and hold confirmation votes on the 21 
judicial nominees pending on the floor. The next pending district and 
circuit court nominees--who will both fill judicial emergency 
vacancies--were nominated 1 year ago, yet both are still awaiting the 
majority leader's action to simply schedule their confirmation votes. 
The next district court nominee on the Executive Calendar is LaShann 
Hall, an outstanding African-American woman who has been nominated to 
serve in the Eastern District of New York. And directly following that 
nomination is Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo who, when confirmed, will be 
the first ever Hispanic judge from Pennsylvania on the third circuit 
and only the second Hispanic judge to serve on the third circuit. Judge 
Restrepo has strong bipartisan support from his home State Senators, 
Senator Toomey and Senator Casey. At Judge Restrepo's hearing, Senator 
Toomey stated that ``there is no question [Judge Restrepo] is a very 
well qualified candidate to serve on the Third Circuit'' and 
underscored the fact that he recommended that the President nominate 
Judge Restrepo. Although there is an urgent need to fill the emergency 
vacancy on the third circuit, the Republican leadership has refused to 
hold a confirmation vote. All Democrats support this nominee. I hope 
Senator Toomey will seek a firm commitment from his Republican 
leadership to schedule a vote this week for Judge Restrepo.
  In addition to Judge Restrepo, a number of these pending nominees 
have the support of their Republican home State Senators. Just last 
week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted out two Iowa nominees 
recommended to the President by the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee. However, if Republican obstruction continues and if home 
State Senators cannot persuade the majority leader to schedule a vote 
for their nominees soon, then it is unlikely that even highly qualified 
nominees with Republican support will be confirmed by the end of the 
year.
  No Senator has raised a single objection to any of the 21 judicial 
nominees pending on the floor. Each one was reported out of the 
Judiciary Committee by unanimous voice vote, and each has the backing 
of their home State Senators, including Republican Senators. Senate 
Republicans have no excuses left.
  I hope the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania and the other 
Republican Senators will implore their leadership to schedule votes on 
the judicial nominees pending on the floor without further delay.

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