Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of S. 3998, the Federal Judiciary Stabilization Act of 2024, a bill to convert 10 temporary Federal judgeships to permanent seats. Our country is facing a serious judicial shortage and has for some time. The last bill creating Federal district court judgeships was passed into law over 30 years ago. Since that time, the Federal caseload has ballooned, and it has become increasingly difficult to ensure that Americans are able to have their day in court. This need spurred Republicans and Democrats to seek passage of the JUDGES Act earlier this year before the November election. That bill was predicated on an agreement to give 25 judicial appointments to the unknown at that time next President. I was disappointed that Republican leadership held the bill until after the election in order to ensure that their candidate controlled the appointments. It was very disappointing to have politics introduced on what should have been a bipartisan bill. We can't go back in time and pass the JUDGES Act before the election, but we can pass this legislation on a bipartisan basis to prevent the loss of 10 Federal judgeships when the current temporary judgeships expire. Temporary judgeships are designed to help district courts reduce unusually large backlogs. Short-term judgeships look very similar to permanent ones.…”