Digital Signatures Bill Conference

Last night we reached our fourth and final agreement on the conference report on the digital signatures bill. The Chairman, Senator Thurmond and I are Judiciary Conferees and Senator Abraham has participated as a Commerce conferee. I know that many members of this Committee has been interested in this measure from its outset and many were instrumental in helping us pass the Leahy-Abraham substitute to S.761 by unanimous consent last November. Accordingly, I wanted to report that it is my hope that in this case the fourth time is the charm and the House and Senate will proceed without delay to adopt the conference report. It is not a perfect bill and not the bill any one of us might have designed. But it is a good product and one deserving of support, in my view. It is of very significant interest to our emerging economy and electronic commerce. We have worked effectively in a bipartisan and bicameral way under the leadership of Chairman McCain and Senator Hollings and Chairman Bailey and Congressman Dingell.

Unfortunately, I cannot report such success with respect to the bankruptcy bill or the juvenile crime conference.

Hatch-Leahy Juvenile Crime Bill

Another month has come and gone without a meeting of the House-Senate conference on the Hatch-Leahy juvenile crime legislation, that passed the Senate by a 73 to 25 vote 13 months ago. It is now 14 months since the tragic deaths at Columbine High School and the Congress has yet to act, to complete its work on this measure.

Last month the Senate voted again to urge us to move immediately to resolve the impasse on that Conference and enact sensible public safety legislation, including closing the gun show loophole in current law. On the Budget Resolution in April, the Senate adopted a similar amendment. I regret to have to report, however, that, in spite of these expressions of concern by the Senate and the Million Moms March, there has been no action on this vital matter.

Violence Against Women Act

I also regret we have not taken up the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization that Senator Biden has championed and that so many of us have supported. That is something we could and should have enacted by now. It is against absent from the agenda and apparently does not merit the attention of this Committee in the view of the majority. I think they are wrong and regret their decision not to move forward on this important measure.

Bulletproof Vest Grant Partnership Act

I had asked last month, in connection with National Police Week, that the Committee take up S.2413, the bill that I introduced with Senator Campbell and Senator Hatch to improve our Bulletproof Vest Grant Partnership Act by reauthorizing the program for another 3 years, raising the annual appropriation to $50 million and guaranteeing to jurisdictions with populations less than 100,000 a fair share of these resources. The President endorsed the bill and urged action when he spoke at the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service on the West Front of the Capitol. I still hope the Committee will act responsibly on this legislation and that the Senate will consider it without additional unnecessary delay.

Judicial Nominations

I regret that the Committee is not taking this opportunity to report the seven judicial nominees for whom we have held hearings. I look forward to our holding another confirmation hearing for another group of qualified nominees to the 66 federal court vacancies around the country. With only 23 judges confirmed all year, we remain well behind the pace set by this Committee in 1992 when a Democratic Senate confirmed 66 judges nominated by President Bush during a presidential election year.

I regret that the Chairman did not include on the agenda even the four nominees from the hearing held May 25. I hope that we can find a way to report as many nominees as possible as soon as possible.

I hope that we will end the delay in the reporting of the nominee to be the Associate Attorney General of the United States and to head the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. We have also suggested that we proceed with three U.S. Attorneys, 2 U.S. Marshals and the Deputy Administrator of the DEA. I am at a loss why we are not proceeding promptly on these matters.

Subpoenas

Instead of the legislative agenda we in the minority have suggested be the focus of the Committee, this Committee is choosing to follow in the footsteps of Congressman Burton, revisiting the campaign finance hearings of the House GRO Committee and the Thompson Committee here in the Senate. The majority continues its search for something to hold a hearing about with regard to Elian Gonzalez and in its hunt for something to complain about is changing its subpoena request, again, this morning. That is the majority’s prerogative since they set the agenda.