I was disappointed when the Chairman announced this morning that the judicial nominees from last week’s hearing would not be moved forward today after being held over from last week. I was glad to see that 5 of the 6 nominees from that were reported favorably this afternoon.

There remain 36 judicial nominees pending before the Committee. While I thank the Chairman for helping us move these nominees today, I remain concerned that Allen Snyder, a nominee for one of the multiple vacancies on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, has been held off the Committee agenda, again. Mr. Snyder is a distinguished, highly respected and accomplished lawyer. I have no doubt that if he were accorded a Senate vote, he would be confirmed. I fear that some are trying to kill his nomination in Committee by denying him any vote and refusing to report his nomination to the Senate for final action.

The Committee has been woefully slow in acting on nominees to federal courts across the country and, in particular, on nominees to the Courts of Appeals. The Committee has reported only 16 nominees all year, and only two of those have been nominees to the circuit court. The Committee has also held the equivalent of only 3 hearings all year on judicial nominations. I have urged the Chairman both publicly and privately to schedule more hearings and to do so promptly. There is growing frustration around the country with this partisan stall.

The vacancies on the courts of appeals around the country are particularly acute. Vacancies on the courts of appeals are continuing to rob these courts of more than 12 percent of their authorized active strength, as they have for the last several years. The Fourth Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, the Tenth Circuit and the District of Columbia Circuit continue to have multiple vacancies.

President Clinton nominated Judge James Wynn to one of the longstanding vacancies on the Fourth Circuit. If confirmed, Judge Wynn would be the first African-American judge appointed to the Fourth Circuit in its history. We have yet to accord Judge Wynn a hearing despite his qualifications and the strong support of Senator Edwards. His nomination follows that of Judge James Beatty, another outstanding African-American jurist who was never accorded a hearing after being nominated to the Fourth Circuit.

The Fifth Circuit continues to labor under a circuit emergency declared last year by Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King. The Senate continues to pass over the two outstanding nominees for vacancies on that court. One of those well-qualified nominees is Enrique Moreno. Mr. Moreno received the ABA’s highest rating and was rated as one of the three top trial lawyers in El Paso by Texas judges. He is the son of Mexican-American immigrants and the second Hispanic President Clinton has nominated, without Senate action, to this Fifth Circuit vacancy over the last several years.

The Sixth Circuit has vacancies in 25 percent of its authorized judgeships. The Senate has three nominations pending to that court. Among them are Helene White, whose nomination has been pending for more than 3 years, since January 1997, and Kathleen McCree Lewis, one of the outstanding minority nominees on whom I have been seeking action for many months.

While I was encouraged that at least one nominee to one of our appellate courts was included in our last hearing, the Committee has not had the opportunity to hear from many of these other highly qualified circuit court nominees. Now it appears that including Mr. Snyder was a cruel hoax and that the majority of this Committee has no intention of reporting his nomination to the Senate for action. That means that, in effect, there was no Court of Appeals nominee at either the April or May nominations hearings and that the last Court of Appeals nominee was heard in March.

The vacancies in the District Courts in Pennsylvania are astounding, especially in light of the efforts that the Senior Senator from Pennsylvania has made over the years to be responsive to judicial vacancies. I commend Senator Specter for his efforts in working to fill these vacancies. Ten of the 81 current federal court vacancies are in Pennsylvania. These include vacancies that arose years ago. Lynette Norton’s nomination has been pending since April 1998, for over two years. Judge Legrome Davis’ nomination has been pending since July 1998. The Senate has seven qualified nominations currently pending before it for these Pennsylvania vacancies. Unfortunately, only four of them were included in the Committee’s hearing last week. I am disappointed that all of the Pennsylvania nominees have not been accorded a hearing and particularly disappointed that highly qualified minority and women nominees again seem to be left by the wayside.

This year we will again be facing 100 judicial vacancies. Already we have seen 88 vacancies the Senate has so far responded with the confirmation of only 7 judges. By this time in 1988, the Senate had confirmed 21 judges and the Committee had held 8 confirmation hearings for judicial nominees. By this date in 1992, the Senate had confirmed 29 judges and the Committee had held 7 hearings. By this time in 1998, the Senate had confirmed 21 judges and the Committee had held 6 hearings. This year we remain leagues behind any responsible pace. The Senate continues to fail in its responsibility to the American people and the federal courts to take action on judicial nominations. This stall has been evident since 1996, with brief bursts of activity when the spotlight of public attention is focused on this shameful record of obstruction and partisanship.

I have challenged the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate to return to the pace they met in 1998 when we held 13 confirmation hearings and confirmed 65 judges. That approximates the pace in 1992, when a Democratic majority in the Senate acted to confirm 66 judges during President Bush’s final year in office. There is a myth that judges are not traditionally confirmed in Presidential election years. That is not true. Recall that 64 judges were confirmed in 1980, 44 in 1984, 42 in 1988 when a Democratic majority in the Senate confirmed 42 judges nominated by President Reagan and, as I have noted, 66 in 1992 when a Democratic majority in the Senate confirmed 66 judges nominated by President Bush.

Our federal judiciary cannot afford another unproductive election-year session like 1996 when a Republican majority in the Senate confirmed only 17 judges. Since then we have had years of slower and slower confirmations and heavy backlogs in many federal courts.

The Senate has yet this year to confirm a single executive branch nominee from among the 32 the President has sent to us – not one. We have yet to even hold a hearing for the nominee to Associate Attorney General, the third highest-ranking Justice Department position, although Daniel Marcus was nominated 3 months ago.

I look forward to prompt and favorable action by the Committee and the Senate on all the nominees pending before us and look forward to the next hearing and the next markup. On our next agenda I hope we will include Mr. Snyder and the many other highly qualified nominees now stalled before our Committee.