Thomas Daschle: “I agree completely with his assessment of the need to define a time agreement for Merrick Garland. I hope 3 hours can be…”

“I agree completely with his assessment of the need to define a time agreement for Merrick Garland. I hope 3 hours can be sufficient. I can't imagine that we would need more than that amount of time. Obviously, there are issues unrelated to Mr. Garland that need to be addressed. I was interested in the Judicial Conference statement just this week, the 27-judge group, chaired by Chief Rehnquist, actually called upon Congress to create more judges. The group agreed to seek the authorization for 12 new appellate judgeships, 26 trial court judgeships, and 18 bankruptcy court judgeships, over and above the 93 vacancies that exist today. This is going to become an increasingly important matter for the Senate. I intend to work closely with the majority leader to see if we can't resolve the question of nominations and confirmations relating to judges.”