Nominations

Floor Speech

NOMINATIONS -- (Senate - May 22, 2008)

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, as a member of the Judiciary Committee, let me indicate that we are not entirely unfamiliar on the Judiciary Committee with Judge White. She was actually an appointee of President Clinton. For many months, she languished before the committee when it was under Republican control. So she should be a judge with whom at least a considerable number of the members of the Judiciary Committee would have been familiar from her previous appointment. Any suggestion that she was a new arrival or a novelty of some kind to the committee would not be accurate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record an April 30, 2008, letter to the Republican leader and the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee signed by the majority leader, indicating, among other things, the following:

In a floor statement on April 15 I pledged my best efforts to have the Senate consider three circuit court nominations prior to the Memorial Day recess. I stand by my pledge. I cautioned explicitly that ``I cannot guarantee'' this outcome because it depends upon factors beyond my control. Nonetheless, I remain optimistic we can meet that goal.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

U.S. SENATE,

OFFICE OF THE MAJORITY LEADER,

Washington, DC, April 30, 2008.
Hon. MITCH MCCONNELL,
Senate Minority Leader,
Washington, DC.
Hon. ARLENE SPECTER,
Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee, Washington, DC.

DEAR SENATORS MCCONNELL AND SPECTER: Thank you for your letter yesterday regarding judicial nominations.

In a floor statement on April 15 I pledged my best efforts to have the Senate consider three circuit court nominations prior to the Memorial Day recess. I stand by my pledge. I cautioned explicitly that ``I cannot guarantee'' this outcome because it depends upon factors beyond my control. Nonetheless, I remain optimistic we can meet that goal.

A hearing for Fourth Circuit nominee Steven Agee, as well as district court nominees recommended by Senators Lugar and Kyl, will take place tomorrow afternoon. A hearing for Sixth Circuit nominees Raymond Kethledge and Helene White, as well as a Michigan district court nominee, will take place next Wednesday. Senator Leahy has expedited consideration of the Michigan nominees in light of my April 15 remarks.

Nothing in my pledge regarding judicial nominations deprived Chairman Leahy of his prerogative to determine the sequence of nomination hearings in his committee. No one presumed to instruct Senator Specter about the sequence of nominations during the years he served as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And certainly Senator Hatch exercised the chairman's prerogatives freely during the years in which more than sixty of President Clinton's nominees were denied hearings or floor consideration.

The Democratic majority has treated President Bush's judicial nominations with far greater deference than President Clinton was afforded by a Republican-controlled Senate. Three-quarters of President Bush's court of appeals nominees have been confirmed; in contrast, only half of President Clinton's appellate nominations were confirmed. Altogether, 145 of President Bush's judicial nominees, 90 percent of them, have been confirmed in the years that Democrats have controlled the Senate. Last year the Senate confirmed 40 judges, more than during any of the three previous years with Republicans in charge. The federal judicial vacancy rate is the lowest it has been in years.

Chairman Leahy and I will continue to work with you both to process judicial nominations in due course, consistent with the Senate's constitutional role.

Sincerely,
HARRY REID.

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, thank you. I appreciate that.

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