Grassley has held four previous hearings as Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. As part of his review, he conducted a first-ever survey of Article III judges in early 1996. The Grassley survey asked for direct input from judges on a number of issues related to their work, including the number of judges per circuit.
The first hearing of this series was in October 1995, when Grassley reviewed District of Columbia Circuit. In February of this year Grassley examined the judgeships in the 4th Circuit, reviewed the 5th and 11th Circuits in June and continued his work with a September hearing on the 2nd and 8th Circuits.
"Under the Constitution, Congress has the duty to see that tax dollars are spent wisely and make sure the courts are able to do their jobs as efficiently as possible," said Grassley. "Today, each circuit court judgeship costs taxpayers around $1 million per year, so we must take special care in determining how many judgeships are needed by each circuit."
The witness list for the Wednesday, November 19, hearing which begins at 2:00 p.m., in SD-226 follows.