Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 4506 an act to amend the federal judicial code to authorize the appointment of additional permanent bankruptcy judges in various states. This legislation was introduced by Representative Cohen, my colleague from Tennessee. As a member of the judiciary committee, I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. As Chair of the Courts and Competition Policy subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, I have long championed the increase in federal judgeships across the United States. In this Congress, I introduced H.R. 3663, The Federal Judgeship Act of 2009, which would have done exactly this: increase the number of federal judges. The U.S. is also in need of more bankruptcy judges. According to Michael J. Melloy, Chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System, ``Additional judgeships are critical to ensure that the bankruptcy courts have sufficient judicial resources to effectively and efficiently adjudicate the rights and responsibilities of parties in bankruptcy cases and proceedings''. New bankruptcy judgeships have not been authorized by Congress since 1992, yet case filings have increased by 61 percent. The current recession has had an adverse effect on the Bankruptcy Court system. The courts are now faced with much more complex and time- consuming bankruptcy cases, not to mention an increase in volume of cases.…”