***Video of Grassley’s speech can be found here.
Floor Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary
On the Nomination of
Analisa Torres, to be United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York
Derrick Kahala Watson, to be United States District Judge for the District of Hawaii
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Mr. President,
I continue to hear rumblings of how Senate Republicans are obstructing judicial nominees, so I just want to remind my colleagues of how well we are proceeding.
Today the Senate will consider two more judicial nominations, and these people I’m going to approve, so this is the third this week. With today’s expected action we will have confirmed 4 circuit and 9 district nominees during this Congress, for a total of 13.
At this point in 2005 – during President Bush’s second term – the Senate had confirmed not 13 like now, not 9, not 4, but only one judicial nominee. And so that would be a record of 13 for this Administration and one for a counter time during President Bush’s Administration.
And, as I stated last week, the quick pace of this year comes on top of a very productive 112th Congress in which 111 judges were confirmed. That was more judges confirmed than any other Congress going all the way back 20 years.
Overall, with today’s action, we will have confirmed 184 judicial nominees divided this way– 34 Circuit Judges, and now 150 District Judges. The Senate has defeated only two nominees. That’s a record of our passing 184 to 2 that haven’t been approved. And that’s a .989 batting average. So I don’t know who is shedding tears around here but they ought to look at the record.
Other nominees are still being considered by the Senate and a few remain in committee. I would note we have a hearing scheduled for next week, for another circuit and district judge. So we are continuing to move forward.
But even counting those pending nominations, the President has a confirmation rate that is comparable to that of President George W. Bush and President Clinton. It exceeds that of President George H.W. Bush.
So again, there is no credible basis to say this President is being treated differently than previous Presidents. What is different, though, in the case of this President is the manner in which he has allowed vacancies to accumulate before submitting nominations. So it’s about time that down at the White House they get down to work, decide who they’re going to nominate, and get the nominations up here. His failure to make judicial nominations a priority in his first year – when Democrats had a filibuster proof majority in the Senate – resulted in an increase in vacancies. That was not the fault of Senate Republicans.
Throughout his administration it has been the case that a majority of vacancies have had no nominees. Presently do you know that 3 of 4 vacancies have no nominees up here? For the 36 vacancies categorized as “Judicial Emergencies” there are only 8 nominees.
So I just want to set the record straight before we vote on these nominees because I get tired of these crocodile tears being shed! And particularly, I’m getting sick of hearing about us not moving on judges when ¾ of them we don’t even have the nominees up here yet. So quit crying.