Patrick Leahy: “one of the first actions I took this year was to reintroduce the Court Security Improvement Act of 2007, S. 378, on…”

“one of the first actions I took this year was to reintroduce the Court Security Improvement Act of 2007, S. 378, on January 24, 2007. This bipartisan bill has a dozen cosponsors here in the Senate. In February we held a Judiciary Committee hearing at which we heard from Justice Anthony Kennedy. In March the Judiciary Committee considered and then reported the bill by unanimous consent. I thank the majority leader and the assistant majority leader for their interest in these matters. Each has witnessed violence against judges in their home States. With their leadership, in April the Senate was called upon to consider the measure. I was amazed when it took a cloture motion to proceed to consideration of court security. Cloture on the motion to proceed was obtained by a vote of 93 to 3. Thereafter, this important measure was considered and passed by the Senate on April 19 by a unanimous vote of 97 to 0. Not a single Senator voted against it, not even those Senators who objected to proceeding to the bill initially or the three Senators who voted against cloture on the motion to proceed. A companion bill was considered by the House of Representatives and passed on a voice vote. To resolve the remaining difference between the Senate-passed measure and the House-passed measure we sought to substitute the Senate-passed text into the House bill and to request a House-Senate conference. This is hardly a novel procedure.…”