Don Nickles: “I urge us to get as many of these judges reported as possible, but I do also think we need to stick to some of the…”

“I urge us to get as many of these judges reported as possible, but I do also think we need to stick to some of the facts. President Bush has submitted 60 nominees for confirmation to us this year; we have confirmed 8. That is 13 percent. President Clinton through all of 1993--the Senate confirmed 27; he submitted 47; so that was a total of 57 percent. The first President Bush, in 1989, in his first year, submitted 24. We confirmed 15. So he had 62 percent of the judges he submitted to Congress in his first year be confirmed. President Reagan, in 1981, submitted 45. Forty-one were confirmed for a confirmation rate of 91 percent. This year with President George W. Bush, we have confirmed 8 out of 60--only 13 percent. So we are way behind compared to the three previous Presidents. We have a lot of catching up to do. Those are the facts. We are way behind on circuit court nominees. We have only confirmed 4, but we have had 25 submitted. So we have only confirmed 16 percent of the circuit court nominees.”