On the recordApril 14, 2010
I am going to tie together judicial nominees and administrative nominees. You heard from my colleague, Senator Klobuchar from Minnesota. She talked about how President Bush had, during his first two years in office, about 100 judicial nominees confirmed, and it is 18 judges so far for President Obama. The district court nominees who have been reported out of committee are waiting almost twice as long to be confirmed as during the Bush administration, and circuit court nominees are waiting five times longer. I have heard my colleagues from the other side say, well, the President isn't nominating judges as fast as President Bush did. First, you would think if that were the case, they would have to wait less time because there are fewer of them. The reason he has been nominating fewer is because they are holding up Christopher Schroeder, from the Office of Legal Policy at DOJ. He is the guy who vets nominees for judgeships. He was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in July of 2009. We could not get him a vote on the floor. Then he wasn't carried over. The Republicans objected, so now he has been renominated earlier this year and reported out again. We cannot get a vote on him. He is the guy who helps the President vet the people for the judgeships. I don't want to hear complaints from my friends on the other side about the pace of the judgeships being nominated, when they are holding up the guy who helps the President vet the judgeships.
