Judiciary Committee Votes To Send Circuit Court Nominee To Floor

 

Leahy Hails 5^th C. Vote And Approval Of Mortgage-Bankruptcy Reforms 

 

WASHINGTON (Thursday, April 3, 2008) – The Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday acted on yet another judicial nomination and also briefly set aside extended debate about judicial nominations to approve key legislation to help Americans facing foreclosures in the current mortgage crisis.  The panel’s chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), had pushed for action on the nomination as well as on an ambitious legislative agenda at Thursday’s committee voting session, after too few members had materialized for quorums in the last several weeks at earlier scheduled meetings.

 

Leahy welcomed the cooperation that finally permitted action on the vacancy on the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.  Leahy held a hearing on the nomination of Catharina Haynes on Feb. 21 during a congressional recess, in an effort to expedite consideration of the nomination.

 

Republican members of the Committee Thursday spoke at length about a few of President Bush’s judicial nominations, many of which currently do not have the support of their home-state senators, long a necessary component of the committee’s consideration of nominations. 

 

“It would be easy to get the impression that some on the other side of the aisle would rather talk about judicial vacancies than let the committee actually meet and act on judicial vacancies,” Leahy said.   “The Committee had an ambitious agenda for today’s business meeting.  Topping that list were urgently needed steps to help bring relief to thousands of American homeowners who are facing the crunch of the subprime mortgage crisis.  Unfortunately, instead of coming to debate that and other important matters, some came today to argue about a handful of judicial nominations.” 

 

Leahy continued, “The committee today overcame those delays and voted to report the Helping Families Save Their Homes in Bankruptcy Act.  We also voted to report one of President Bush’s nominees to the U.S. Court of Appeals.  Later today, the Judiciary Committee will hold another nominations hearing – our fifth this year – for four district court nominees.  We are continuing to make responsible progress on nominations.”

 

The Judiciary Committee has held five hearings this year for 15 nominees.  Under Democratic leadership the Senate confirmed 40 judicial nominations in 2007 -- more than were confirmed in any of the preceding three years under Republican control.  The Judiciary Committee has also reported out 10 nominations for high-ranking positions in the Department of Justice, including the Department’s top three positions -- Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General and the Associate Attorney General.

 

The Haynes nomination, as well as four nominations for district court vacancies, are currently listed on the Senate’s Executive Calendar and await consideration by the full Senate.

 

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Leahy’s statement on the Committee’s consideration of the Haynes nomination follows:

 

Statement of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.),

Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee,

On Judicial Nominations

April 3, 2008

 

 

We continue today to make progress by considering the nomination of Catharina Haynes to a lifetime appointment to fill the last vacancy on the Fifth Circuit, one of the Nation’s influential appeals courts.

 

If this nomination is reported favorably by the Committee and then confirmed by the Senate, we will have confirmed more circuit court nominees this session than in the entire 1996 session of Congress, when the Republican majority refused to act on a single circuit nominee.

 

During our February recess, I chaired our third nominations hearing of the year.  At that time, the Committee considered three judicial nominations, including that of Catharina Haynes of Texas to be a Circuit Judge on the Fifth Circuit.  I knew that this nomination was important to Senator Cornyn, so I moved forward with that hearing.  Instead of receiving thanks for making the effort to hold a confirmation hearing during the recess, I have actually been criticized by Republicans for doing so.

 

In February, the Judiciary Committee held two hearings for seven judicial nominees, including the Haynes nomination, but Republican Members of the Judiciary Committee effectively boycotted our business meetings and obstructed our ability to report judicial nominations and high-ranking Justice Department nominations. 

 

Last month, I commended the Ranking Member of this Committee for acknowledging the years of Republican pocket filibusters of more than 60 of President Clinton’s judicial nominations as excess.  I have long said that what would help the process is a sincere and full acknowledgement by those Republican Senators who obstructed President Clinton’s moderate and well qualified judicial nominees of their excesses and mistakes.  That has yet to occur.  I repeat, that has yet to occur. 

 

I do not hold the senior Senator from Pennsylvania responsible for those activities.  He was not chairing the Committee or a member of the Republican leadership or even one of the more active participants in that effort.  In fact, except for his vote to defeat the nomination of Ronnie White of Missouri, for which he subsequently apologized, I cannot think of another judicial nominee he opposed. 

 

As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee I have worked hard to turn the other cheek and greatly improve on the sorry treatment accorded nominees when Republicans controlled consideration of President Clinton’s nominees.  During the 17 months I was Chairman during President Bush’ first term, we acted faster and more favorably on more of this President’s judicial nominees than under either of the Republican Chairmen who succeeded me.  During those 17 months, the Senate confirmed 100 judicial nominations.  In fact, during the 2-year chairmanship of my friend from Pennsylvania, the Senate confirmed just 54 judicial nominations. 

 

When I assumed the chairmanship last year, the Committee and the Senate continued to make progress with the confirmation of 40 more lifetime appointments to our federal courts.  That is more than were confirmed during any of the three preceding years under Republican leadership and more than were confirmed in 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000, when a Republican-led Senate was considering President Clinton’s nominations.  Thus, as Chairman, I have worked to help the Senate act to confirm 140 lifetime appointments in only three years, as compared to 158 during more than four years of Republican control.

 

In fact, with this afternoon’s hearing, the Committee will have held hearings for 11 nominees in the eight weeks the Congress has been in session this year.

 

I said that we would treat this President’s nominees more fairly than Republicans treated President Clinton’s, and we have.  We have not pocket filibustered more than 60 of this President’s judicial nominees, as had been done to President Clinton’s nominees.  We have not opposed them in secret or anonymously.  On the contrary, during my chairmanship the views of home-state Senators, as reflected in the blue slips submitted to the Committee, were made public for the first time.  We have considered nominations openly and on the record.   We have proceeded with consideration of nominations I opposed, which is something that never happened under previous Republican leadership.    

 

The Republican Senate chose to stall consideration of circuit nominees and maintain vacancies during the Clinton administration in anticipation of a Republican presidency.    Vacancies rose to over 100.  Circuit vacancies doubled during the Clinton years.

 

In those years, Senator Hatch justified the slow progress by pointing to the judicial vacancy rate.  When the vacancy rate stood at 7.2 percent, Senator Hatch declared that “there is and has been no judicial vacancy crisis” and that this was a “rather low percentage of vacancies that shows the judiciary is not suffering from an overwhelming number of vacancies.”  Because of Republican inaction, the vacancy rate continued to rise, reaching nearly 10 percent at the end of President Clinton’s term.  The number of circuit court vacancies rose to 32 with retirements of Republican appointed circuit judges immediately after President Bush took office.  

 

I was here in 1999 when the Republican Chairman of the Judiciary Committee would not hold a hearing for a single judicial nominee until June.  Then, as soon as a Republican President was elected they sought to turn the tables and take full advantage of the vacancies they prevented from being filled during the Clinton presidency.  They have been extraordinarily successful over the past dozen years.  Currently, more than 60 percent of active judges on the federal circuit courts were appointed by Republican presidents and more than 35 percent have been appointed by this President.  Another way to look at their success is to observe that the Senate has already confirmed three-quarters of this President’s circuit court nominees, compared to only half of President Clinton’s.  

 

There is perhaps no better examples of Democratic efforts to treat President Bush’s nominations more fairly than President Clinton’s were treated than the court to which Judge Haynes has been nominated, the Fifth Circuit, to which 12 of the 16 active judges have been appointed by Republican Presidents.  Republican efforts to stack this court included stalling consideration of several of President Clinton’s outstanding nominees.  Judge Jorge Rangel of Texas, Enrique Moreno of Texas, and Alston Johnson of Louisiana were never accorded the kind of hearing that Ms. Haynes was given, nor listed on a Committee agenda for a vote.  The fact is that those on the other side of the aisle refused to proceed on any nominations to Fifth Circuit during President Clinton’s entire second term. 

 

In stark contrast, I have held hearings on all six of the Fifth Circuit nominees of this President during my chairmanship, and the Committee has voted on all of the previous five.  Vacancies on the Fifth Circuit are at an all-time low.  Indeed, the vacancy for which Ms. Haynes has been nominated is the only one that exists on the Circuit.  Contrast this with the situation during the Clinton years when the Chief Judge of the Circuit declared a Fifth Circuit emergency because of multiple vacancies that Republicans Senators refused to help to fill. 

 

We continue to make progress on nominations.  Four district court nominations are pending on the Senate’s Executive Calendar.  This afternoon, the Committee will hold its fifth confirmation hearing this year.

 

If the White House would work with us and with home-state Senators, we could be making even more progress.  An important example is the recent nomination of Steven Agee to a Virginia seat in the Fourth Circuit.  It is regrettable that Justice Agee’s nomination was sent to the Senate only after months of delay when the White House insisted on sending to the Senate the nomination of Duncan Getchell.  That nomination did not have the support of either of the Virginia Senators and was withdrawn after the Virginia Senators objected publicly.  In fact, the delay in filling that vacancy has lasted years because this President insisted on sending forward highly controversial nominations like William Haynes, Claude Allen, and Duncan Getchell.

 

Two weeks ago, I wrote to the President that I expected the Judiciary Committee and the Senate to proceed promptly to consider and confirm Justice Agee’s nomination with the support of Senator Warner and Senator Webb.  I urged the President to use the Agee nomination as a model for working with home state Senators and Senators from both sides of the aisle.  Time is running short.

 

Senate Democrats should not act the way Republicans did by pocket filibustering more than 60 of President Clinton’s nominees, and we have not. I would rather see us work with the President on the selection of nominees that the Senate can proceed to confirm than waste precious time fighting about controversial nominees who he selects in order to score political points. 

 

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