This Judiciary Committee has reported only three nominees to the Courts of Appeals all year. We have held hearings without even including a nominee to the Courts of Appeals and denied a Committee vote to two outstanding nominees who succeeded in getting hearings. I certainly understand the frustration of those Senators who know that Roger Gregory, Helene White, Kathleen McCree Lewis, Bonnie Campbell and others should be considered by this Committee and voted on by the Senate without additional delay.

On September 14, Senators Barbara Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Blanche Lincoln, Tom Harkin, Carl Levin, and Representative Carolyn Maloney highlighted the Senate's failure to act on judicial nominations to the federal bench. They called on the Senate leadership to consider qualified women before the Congress adjourns. They also discussed the problems of judicial emergencies, the length of time it takes women and people of color to be confirmed, and how the federal courts do not currently reflect the diversity of our country. Further, they focused on the following women who have been waiting more than 60 days for confirmation: Helene White, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, pending 1350 days; Kathleen McCree Lewis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, pending 360 days; Bonnie Campbell, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, pending 202 days; Elena Kagan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, pending 466 days; Lynette Norton, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, pending 880 days; Patricia Coan, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, pending 490 days; Rhonda C. Fields, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, pending 313 days; Linda B. Riegle, U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, pending 153 days; Dolly Gee, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, pending 482 days.

President Clinton, in remarks before the Michigan Bar Association last week, spoke about the Senate’s failure to act upon his judicial nominees. Noting that his nominees have received more top ABA ratings than those of any President in 40 years, the President said: “These people are highly qualified, which leads to only one conclusion, that the appointments process has been politicized in the hope of getting appointees ultimately to the bench who will be more political. That is wrong. It is a denial of justice.”

It is not too late in the session to move on these nominations. We know that we can make quick progress when we want to do so. The last group of nominees considered by the Judiciary Committee included three who were nominated on a Friday, had their hearing the next week and were approved and reported to the Senate within six days.

In addition to the recent examples I just noted, there is the example of a hearing held earlier this month by the Government Affairs Committee on two District of Columbia Superior Court judges, one who was nominated on May 1 and the other who was nominated on June 26. Another example of the ability of the Senate to act is the September 8 confirmation of James E. Baker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. Of course, the Republican candidate for the presidency has said that nominations should be acted upon within 60 days. Of the 42 judicial nominations currently pending, 37 have been pending from 60 days to 4 years without final action.

There is also the example of action by the Democratic majority in 1992 on the nomination of Timothy Lewis to the Third Circuit. Mr. Lewis was nominated on September 17, 1992. He was accorded a hearing on September 24, was voted on by the Committee on October 7, and was confirmed by the Senate on October 8, before it adjourned for rest of the campaign before the presidential election that year.

By September 17 of this year, Roger Gregory, another highly qualified African-American nominee, had already been pending in the Judiciary Committee for well over 60 days without even the courtesy of a hearing.

Let us compare the lack of action this year to what a Democratic majority in the Senate accomplished in 1992 during the last year of President Bush’s administration. The Senate confirmed 11 Court of Appeals nominees during that Republican President’s last year in office among the 66 judicial confirmations for the year. In 1992, the Committee held 15 hearings – twice as many as this Committee has found time to hold this year. The Judiciary Committee has held hearings on only five Court of Appeals nominees all year and has refused to vote on two of those. In the last 10 weeks of the 1992 session, the Committee held four hearings and all of the nominees who had hearings then were confirmed before adjournment. In the last 10 weeks of the 1992 session, we confirmed 32 judicial nominations.

By contrast, we still have pending without a hearing qualified nominees like Judge Helene White of Michigan. She has been held hostage for over 45 months without a hearing. She is the record holder for a judicial nominee who has had to wait the longest for a hearing and her wait continues without explanation to this day.

We still have pending before the Committee, the nomination of Bonnie Campbell to the Eighth Circuit. Ms Campbell had her hearing last May, but the Committee refuses to consider her nomination, vote her up or vote her down. Instead, there is the equivalent of an anonymous and unexplained secret hold. Bonnie Campbell is a distinguished lawyer, public servant and law enforcement officer. She was the Attorney General for the State of Iowa and the Director of the Violence Against Women Office at the United States Department of Justice. And she enjoys the full support of both of her home State Senators, Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley. I commend Senator Harkin for his statements to the Senate on Tuesday and Wednesday on behalf of Ms Campbell’s nomination. I understand Senator Harkin’s frustration and believe that the Senate’s failure to act on this highly qualified nominee is without justification.

We still have pending without a hearing the nomination of Roger Gregory of Virginia and Judge James Wynn of North Carolina to the Fourth Circuit. Were either of these highly-qualified jurists confirmed by the Senate, we would be finally acting to allow a qualified African American to sit on that Court for the first time. Fifty years has passed since the confirmation of Judge Hastie to the Third Circuit and still there has never been an African-American on the Fourth Circuit in the history of that Circuit. The nomination of Judge James A. Beaty, Jr., was previously sent to us by President Clinton in 1995. That nomination was never considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee or the Senate and was returned to President Clinton without action at the end of 1998. It is time for the Senate to act on a qualified African-American nominee to the Fourth Circuit. It is also time for the Senate to act on the nomination of Kathleen McCree Lewis to be the first African American woman to serve on the Sixth Circuit. President Clinton spoke powerfully about these matters at the NAACP Convention. We should respond not be misunderstanding or mischaracterizing what he said, but instead taking action on these well-qualified nominees.

I commend Senators Robb and Warner, along with Representatives Bobby Scott and Jim Clyburn, for speaking out on Wednesday to draw attention to the Senate’s failure to act upon the nomination of Roger Gregory to fill an emergency vacancy in the Fourth Circuit. As Senator Robb pointed out, Mr. Gregory has been nominated to fill a vacancy that has existed on the Fourth Circuit for 10 years. While the Court is authorized to have 15 judges, it is operating with only 10 judges today. That means the Court has one-third of its positions vacant. Beth Nolan, the Counsel to the President, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

[T]he seat for which Mr. Gregory was nominated has not been filed before, nor allocated to any particular state in the Fourth Circuit. Moreover, Roger Gregory has the strong support of both of his home-state senators (who were indeed consulted prior to nomination). Democratic Sen. Chuck Robb recommended Mr. Gregory to the president and has been working tirelessly on Mr. Gregory's behalf. Republican Sen. John Warner has joined Sen. Robb in requesting that Sen. Hatch give Mr. Gregory a hearing.

I ask unanimous consent that the full text of that letter be included in the record.

It is past time for the Judiciary Committee to consider Mr. Gregory’s nomination.

We still have pending before the Committee the nomination of Enrique Moreno to the Fifth Circuit. He is the latest in a succession of outstanding Hispanic nominees by President Clinton to that Court, but he too is not being considered by the Committee or the Senate. Mr. Moreno succeeded to the nomination of Jorge Rangel on which the Senate refused to act last Congress. These are well-qualified nominees who will add to the capabilities and diversity of those courts. In fact, the Chief Judge of the Fifth Circuit declared that a judicial emergency exists on that court, caused by the number of judicial vacancies, the lack of Senate action on pending nominations, and the overwhelming workload.

I remain vigilant regarding the Senate’s treatment of nominees who are women or minorities. I have said that I do not regard the Chairman as a biased person. I have also been outspoken in my concern about the manner in which we are failing to consider qualified minority and women nominees over the last several years. From Margaret Morrow, Margaret McKeown and Sonia Sotomayor, through Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon, and including Judge James Beatty, Jr., Judge James Wynn, Roger Gregory, Enrique Moreno and all the other qualified women and minority nominees who have been delayed and opposed over the last several years, I have spoken out.

The Senate will never remove the blot that occurred last October when the Republican Senators emerged from a Republican Caucus to vote lockstep against Justice Ronnie White to be a Federal District Court Judge in Missouri. At a Missouri Bar Association forum last week, Justice White expressed concern that the rejection of his nominations to a federal judgeship will have a “chilling effect” on the desire of young African American lawyers to seek to enter the judiciary. The Senate took a very wrong action last October when the Republican caucus rejected Justice White’s nomination.

There continue to be multiple vacancies on the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits. With 22 current vacancies, our appellate courts have nearly half of the total judicial emergency vacancies in the federal court system. I note that the vacancy rate for our Courts of Appeals is more than 11 percent nationwide. If we were to take into account the additional appellate judgeships included in the Hatch-Leahy Federal Judgeship Act of 2000, a bill that was requested by the Judicial Conference to handle their increased workloads, the vacancy rate would be 16 percent.

I regret to report again today that the last confirmation hearing for federal judges held by the Judiciary Committee was in July as was the last time the Judiciary Committee reported any nominees to the full Senate. Throughout August and now into the fourth week in September, there have been no additional hearings held or even noticed, and no executive business meetings have included any judicial nominees on the agenda. By contrast, in 1992, the last year of the Bush Administration, a Democratic majority in the Senate held three confirmation hearings in August and September and continued to work to confirm judges up to and including the last day of the session.

I regret that the Judiciary Committee’s inaction on judicial nominations has led to Senators object to Senate committees continuing to meet on other matters while the Senate is in session. The matter is most acute with regard to the numerous vacancies on our Courts of Appeals and to the qualified women and men who have been nominated and then stalled before the Committee.

I continue to urge the Senate to meet its responsibilities to all nominees, including women and minorities. So long as the Senate is in session, I will urge action. That highly-qualified nominees are being needlessly delayed is most regrettable. The Senate should join with the President to confirm well-qualified, diverse and fair-minded nominees to fulfill the needs of the federal courts around the country.