Political Quotes

“I spoke to the issue of judicial nominations last Friday and say, again, with 60 current and longstanding vacancies within the federal judiciary, and seven more on the horizon, we cannot afford to stop or slow down the little progress we are making. Our hearing today included three nominees moved forward to fill positions on the District Court of Arizona that have all been declared judicial emergencies. Each of the nominees was nominated last Friday. They are now having their hearing, they look forward to being voted out of committee on Thursday and approved by the Senate before the week is out--within one week of nomination. This demonstrates what we can do when we want to take action. All the talk about needing six months or more to process and review nominees is just that--talk. If all goes according to schedule, these nominees will be in and out of the Senate in less than one week. We could do that with a number of nominees. Instead, this is a Senate that has kept highly-qualified nominees, such as Richard Paez and Marsha Berzon, waiting for years before they get a vote. There is just no reason to have a qualified nominee like Judge Helene White of Michigan held hostage for over 42 months without a hearing.”