Patrick Leahy: “with today's votes on these judicial nominations to the Federal district courts in Pennsylvania, the Democratic-led…”

“with today's votes on these judicial nominations to the Federal district courts in Pennsylvania, the Democratic-led Senate will have confirmed 63 judicial nominees since the change in Senate majority a little more than 1 year ago. I commend Majority Leader Daschle for having worked through the problems created by the White House's refusal to proceed in a bipartisan way with nominations to bipartisan boards and commissions and for having worked with Senator McCain to get to this point. I understand Senator McCain's frustration with the White House and how it is treating nominations but thank him for allowing us to proceed with these judicial nominations at this time. In fact, this majority leader has worked hard to bring these nominations to the floor and his efforts have included having to proceed by way of cloture on three nominees in the last few weeks. He has gone the extra mile and that should be acknowledged. Similarly, the Judiciary Committee continues to make efforts that were not made by the Republican leadership.”