Patrick Leahy: “The Senate is making progress on judicial confirmations. Under Democratic leadership, the Senate has confirmed more…”

“The Senate is making progress on judicial confirmations. Under Democratic leadership, the Senate has confirmed more judges in the last 9 months than were confirmed in 4 out of 6 full years under Republican leadership. The number of judicial confirmations over these past 9 months--43 exceeds the number confirmed during all 12 months of 2000, 1999, 1997 and 1996. During the preceding 6 years in which a Republican majority most recently controlled the pace of judicial confirmations in the Senate, 248 judges were confirmed. Some like to talk about the 377 judges confirmed during the Clinton administration, but forget to mention that more than one-third were confirmed during the first 2 years of the Clinton administration while the Senate majority was Democratic and Senator Biden chaired the Judiciary Committee. The pace of confirmations under a Republican majority was markedly slower, especially in 1996, 1997, 1999, and 2000.”