Orrin Hatch: “here we go again: statistics judo being used on the floor of the Senate courtesy of the Judiciary Committee. I am going…”

“here we go again: statistics judo being used on the floor of the Senate courtesy of the Judiciary Committee. I am going to always address these statistics with the facts. The bottom line is the facts speak for themselves. We have an unprecedented and shocking 31 vacancies on the Federal circuit courts of appeals in this country. That is not progress. Last Thursday, Senator Lott introduced a resolution calling for the Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on each of the circuit court judges nominated by President Bush on May 9 of last year. We are coming up on the 1-year anniversary of those nominations, and yet only 3 of the 11 nominees have had hearings and confirmation votes. All of these nominees have received well-qualified or qualified ratings from the American Bar Association, which some of my Democratic colleagues have described as the gold standard in evaluating judicial nominees. Why is it so problematic that none of these 8 nominees have received a hearing or vote? It is no secret that there is a vacancy crisis in the Federal circuit courts, and that we are making no progress in addressing it. Let's take a look at some numbers. A total of 22 circuit nominations are pending in the Judiciary Committee. But we have confirmed only one circuit judge this year, and only seven since President Bush took office.”