Political Quotes

“today, we will be voting to confirm Judge George Hanks, who has been nominated to be a Federal district judge in the Southern District of Texas. Judge Hanks is just the second judicial nominee that we have voted to confirm more than 3 months into the 114th Congress. The slow trickle of confirmations that the new majority has allowed is undermining the functioning of our Federal courts and is hurting the American people. This past month, the Wall Street Journal wrote an alarming article about the backlog of civil cases in our Federal courts. One man interviewed for the article filed a Federal law suit in 2007 and is still waiting for his case to be heard. It is unconscionable that an American would have to wait 8 years and still not have his day in court. Unfortunately, it is not surprising given that at last count, there were more than 330,000 civil cases pending in our Federal courts. This is a record high and an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2004. There are steps the Republican majority should take to help our Federal courts better serve the American people. First, the Senate should confirm every single one of the nine judicial nominees on the Executive Calendar without further delay. Besides Judge Hanks, there are two other Federal district court nominees pending on the Executive Calendar, both from States with two Republican home State Senators. Both of those nominees were reported out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously by voice vote.…”