Patrick Leahy: “a little more than a month ago we were able to obtain a firm commitment from the White House that there would be no…”

“a little more than a month ago we were able to obtain a firm commitment from the White House that there would be no further judicial recess appointments for the remainder of this presidential term. That undertaking led immediately and directly to the Senate vitiating a cloture vote and proceeding to confirm a district court nominee from Florida. Since that time I have been urging the Republican leadership to schedule consideration and votes on the other two dozen nominees to be considered. They started slowly but last week we were able to confirm nine of the judicial nominees. Today we will act on several more. It is unfortunate that the Republican leadership did not schedule the debate that they know will be required before a vote on the Holmes nomination. There remains no Democratic hold on that nomination. The problem has been the failure of the Republican leadership to build that debate into the Senate schedule. I am working with the Democratic leader and all Senators to complete action on all the other judicial nominees subject to the understanding. In order to accommodate Senators, we will proceed with some of the nominees by voice vote. The facts are that Senate Democrats have been much more cooperative with this President than Republicans were when President Clinton was in the White House. Democrats in this Senate have shown great restraint and extensive cooperation in the confirmation of nearly 200 of this President's judicial nominations.”