Political Quotes

“today the Senate continues its very rapid pace to confirm another of President Obama's judicial nominees. The Judiciary Committee's workload has not slowed since this Congress convened. I am pleased to report we are ahead of the pace of the 108th Congress. With this vote, the Senate will have confirmed 22 nominees in just 47 days. That is a rate of one judge almost every other day of Senate session. We have confirmed 32 percent of President Obama's judicial nominees this Congress compared to only 29 percent of President Bush's confirmed during the same time period. We have also reported out of committee another 11 nominees. We have reported out of committee 46 percent of President Obama's nominees sent to the Senate this year. That exceeds the 38 percent of President Bush's nominees reported out during a comparable period. Furthermore, we have held hearings on 10 nominees. Some of those, I expect, will be reported out of committee at our markup scheduled for tomorrow. In total, we have taken positive action on 43 of 71 judicial nominees submitted this Congress or approximately 61 percent of all nominees. I hope these facts will put to rest, once and for all, any complaints that we are delaying or obstructing judicial nominees. There are currently 89 vacancies before the courts. Yet the President has not sent nominees for 51 percent of those vacancies. He has, however, sent the Senate four nominees for seats which are not yet vacant.…”