Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - October 14, 2009)

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By Mr. WHITEHOUSE (for himself, Mr. LEAHY, and Mr. SESSIONS):

S. 1782. A bill to provide improvements for the operations of the Federal courts, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 on behalf of myself and the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee, Senators LEAHY and SESSIONS. I thank them for their support. It has been a pleasure to work with them on this important bipartisan effort.

The Federal Courts decide crucial issues of criminal and civil law every day, providing justice and protecting our constitutional rights. It is our responsibility in Congress to ensure that our governing technical issues of judicial administration will help them in this effort.

The Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 takes up that responsibility by making nine technical fixes necessary for the better administration of the Federal courts. The bill will clarify the role of Senior Judges in the selection of Magistrate Judges, enable better workload distribution among the judges of the District of North Dakota, align the benefits received by territorial judges in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands with those of other term judges, equalize leave limits and pay scales for judicial executives with those for senior executive branch officials, protect individual privacy in connection with judges' role in the sentencing process, clarify the authority of pretrial service officers over juvenile offenders, amend requirements for the reporting of wiretap information to the Administrative Office of the Courts, and add an inflation adjustment for the case expenses that must be reviewed by the chief judge of a district court. The Administrative Office of the Courts supports each provision.

I urge my colleagues to act promptly on this bipartisan legislation. I again thank Chairman LEAHY and Ranking Member SESSIONS for their support.

Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, I am pleased to join Senators WHITEHOUSE and SESSIONS to introduce the Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill that would improve the administration and efficiency of our Federal court system. This legislation would also provide the third branch of government with important assistance to the women and men who comprise the Federal judiciary.

I thank Senator Whitehouse and Senator Sessions for their hard work on this critical issue. I previously introduced a court improvement bill in the 108th Congress. I hope the bill we introduce today will pass the full Senate with unanimous support, and will not be subjected to the objections of Senate Republicans as it was 5 years ago. I have also supported past legislative proposals from the Judicial Conference to improve the administration of justice in the Federal courts, including a similar measure last year, which was enacted into law.

In recent years, the job of a Federal judge has changed considerably. Today, Federal judges at both the trial and appellate level are hearing more cases with fewer available judicial resources. We have a responsibility to pass legislation that helps them keep up with changing times and circumstances. Just as it is the judiciary's duty to deliver justice in a neutral and unbiased manner, it is the duty of the legislative branch to provide the requisite tools for the women and men who honorably serve on the judiciary to ably fulfill their critical responsibilities. I believe our independent judiciary is the envy of the world, and we must take care to protect it.

The legislation we introduce today contains proposals that the Federal judiciary believes will improve its operations and allow it to continue to serve as a bulwark protecting our individual rights and liberties. It also contains additional technical and substantive proposals carried over from previous Congresses.

The Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 would facilitate judicial operations and improve judicial resource management. The bill would clarify existing law to ensure that senior judges with a minimum workload can participate in the selection of magistrate judges. The bill would also revise the statutory description of the District of North Dakota to eliminate unnecessary references to divisions and counties, while maintaining the present requirement that North Dakota constitutes one judicial district. I believe this technical change would improve the judicial workload distribution in that district and reduce travel time for litigants.

Our legislation also contains critical provisions that would improve personnel and benefits for certain judges and their hardworking judiciary staff. The bill would authorize a cost-of-living adjustment for Federal territorial judges entitled to receive an annuity. It would also authorize territorial judges who are 65 years of age or older to collect, for the remainder of their lives, an annuity equal to the salary received when they left office. These changes would reduce existing inequities between Federal territorial judges and other term judges such as Federal magistrate and bankruptcy judges. The bill would extend to senior executives in the Federal courts, the Federal Judicial Center, and the Sentencing Commission the same ability to carry over annual leave hours as that enjoyed by senior employees in the Executive Branch and the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, AO. It would also allow the Federal Judicial Center to provide a modest increase in pay for certain division directors.

The Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009 would also improve the administration of criminal justice. The bill would better protect confidential information about a defendant during sentencing by allowing the ``statement of reasons'' form that judges are required to issue upon sentencing to be filed separately with the court. This change would allow confidential information contained within the ``statement of reasons'' to be more easily controlled and protected. In addition, the bill would clarify the scope of authority of Federal pretrial services officers to supervise and assist juveniles awaiting delinquency disposition in Federal court. Current laws regarding the duties of pretrial service officers focus solely on adults and thus it is unclear what duties those officers have to provide services to juveniles. This bill would fill that gap and ensure that pretrial services officers are fully authorized to arrange drug treatment and other critical services for juvenile offenders. The bill would also improve the statistical reporting schedule for criminal wiretap orders. It would eliminate burdensome monthly deadlines for state and Federal judges to report their wiretap data and unrealistic interagency deadlines for reporting that data to the AO. This change will allow for more comprehensive reporting of wiretap data.

In addition, the legislation we introduce today would also conserve judicial resources over certain court requests from indigent defendants. Under current law, a certain statutory threshold exists at which the costs of hiring expert witnesses and conducting investigations for indigent defendants must be approved by the court. These thresholds do not account for inflation, however, which results in a waste of precious judicial resources. This bill would apply an inflationary index to the threshold amount to make them more cost-effective. As a result, this change will allow judges to spend more time on less of these requests each year, which would better improve the overall administration of justice.

I am glad that this important legislation has the support of the Administrative Office of the Courts, on behalf of the Judicial Conference, and Senators on both sides of the aisle. The Federal judiciary needs these improvements to increase its efficiency and administrative operations. I urge all Senators to support prompt passage of this noncontroversial legislation this year.

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