Patrick Leahy: “last night, the Senate voted to confirm three additional nominees to the Federal district courts: James Gritzner from…”

“last night, the Senate voted to confirm three additional nominees to the Federal district courts: James Gritzner from Iowa, Richard Leon from Maryland, who will serve as a judge on the District Court for the District of Columbia, and David Bunning from Kentucky. With these votes, the Senate will have confirmed nine judges since beginning the second session three weeks ago. With these confirmations, the Senate will have confirmed 37 judges since the change in majority last June. That number exceeds the number of judges confirmed in all 12 months of 1997 or 1999 and, of course, more than during the entire 1996 session. I would, again, urge the White House to work with home-state Senators, to work with Democratic and as well as Republican Senators, and to send nominees like James Gritzner, who received bipartisan support from his home-state Senators. With the confirmation of Judge Gritzner, the Senate has confirmed two Federal judges from Iowa this week, the other being Judge Michael Melloy for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The Judiciary Committee moved quickly on these nominations. Both Judge Gritzner and Judge Melloy participated in the first nominations hearing of this session, which was the first confirmation hearing held in January in more than half a decade. They were reported favorably by the Committee at the earliest possible Executive Business Meeting this year, on February 7, and they are now confirmed, just one week later.”