Political Quotes

“Let me summarize where I was, Mr. President. The point is, we are a country that relies upon our courts to administer the rule of law. At the Federal level that means we need to have a fully staffed Federal judiciary. We always know there are a certain number of vacancies at any given time. But we need to complete action on as many of the nominations pending before us as possible, certainly before we leave perhaps some time next month. In the past, it has been the case that Members of both parties have expressed concern about the fact that we have vacancies and that we need to fill those vacancies. I will make note of that in just a moment because some of my colleagues on the other side have been eloquent about their commitment to try to get the process done. My point is, with over 40 vacancies designated as emergencies by the Administrative Office of the Courts that characterizes vacancies as 'emergency' or 'nonemergency,' with over 100 vacancies now, over 40 of which are emergencies, it is not business as usual.”