I do not want to end this year without publicly thanking all members of the Committee who have worked with me this year to accomplish what little we have. I especially want to thank my fellow Democratic members for their support and cooperation on difficult matters and for working together so effectively. I thank each of the Ranking Democrats on each subcommittee for their efforts on behalf of us all. They have prepared for hearings and other subcommittee and Committee action on short notice, overnight notice and sometimes no notice at all. With few resources, they have nonetheless been resourceful and contributed greatly to the work of their subcommittees, this Committee and the Senate.

In particular, I want to commend Senator Kennedy for his outstanding work to improve the H1-B visa and the visa waiver bills finally passed this week. His leadership in these matters was characteristically extraordinary. And in this regard, I again acknowledge Senator Abraham and his staff for their contribution and for working with us.

I also want to thank and congratulate Senator Kyl for working with all of us successfully to confirm the three judicial nominees to the Federal District Court in Arizona earlier this week.

I only wish that there were more: More judicial nominees should have been confirmed this year to take our total of 39 closer to the 66 judges confirmed in 1992, the last year of the Bush Administration, and to move the number of vacancies being left this year from 63 (and rising) down closer to the 23 left in 1988, the last year of the Reagan Administration.

I also regret that there are not more judgeships being created, as recommended by the Judicial Conference and reflected in the Hatch-Leahy Federal Judgeship Act of 2000, S.3071. In particular, I wish we had acted as Senator Feinstein had urged on judgeships for the hardest hit southwest border state courts like those in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

It is illustrative of our year here on the Committee that we end without action on Bonnie Campbell or the other highly-qualified nominees for judicial and executive appointments, with a Republican filibuster of a bipartisan bill cosponsored by a bipartisan majority of this Committee, and with another last-minute demand for an unenforceable subpoena. I am glad we were able to work together on a bipartisan Hatch-Leahy-Schumer substitute that provides a consensus version of a cyber crime bill. The agenda this week, however, says a good deal about our year and what little we have been able to accomplish.

It is somewhat unusual for the opposition to the arbitration legislation to be out in the open rather than by means of a secret, anonymous hold, which has otherwise become the order of the day. To point to a few of the many other examples of good, bipartisan legislation that have become casualties of this practice while being cleared by all Senate Democrats I need only mention the Campbell-Leahy Bulletproof Vest Partnership Grant Act of 2000, S. 571; the House-passed work for hire copyright legislation, H.R. 5107; the DeWine-Leahy Computer Crime Grant Act, S.1314; and the Madrid Protocol Implementation Act, S.671. And, of course, there are the judicial nominations of Bonnie Campbell, Roger Gregory, Judge Helene White and others that we debated on the Senate floor his last Tuesday.

Finally, I end the year as I began it by paying tribute to the Chairman of the Committee. I have tried throughout the year to be respectful of the prerogatives and powers of the Chairman. I was able to help Chairman Hatch obtain action on a number of matters of personal interest to him: the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, S.1515; the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, S. 2869; the H1-B visa legislation, S. 2045; the loyalty oath legislation, S. 2812; private relief for Saeed Rezai, S. 451; numerous commemoratives and the cyber crime bill we are working on today.

I regret that we were never able to complete work on the Hatch-Leahy juvenile crime bill, S. 254, that passed the Senate with a 73-vote bipartisan majority back in May, 1999; bankruptcy reform legislation, S. 625; a strong Violence against Women Act of 2000 with provisions for transitional housing and for participation by small and rural states; a correction of the civil asset reform legislation; a modification of the McDade law; the Federal Judgeship Act, S. 3071 and, most importantly, the Innocence Protection Act, S. 2690.

I hope that when we return next year, we do so after reflection and with a renewed common purpose to work together in mutual respect in the best traditions of this Committee and the Senate and for the best interests of the American people.