Patrick Leahy: “With this confirmation--and I expect Mr. Wu will be confirmed--we will have confirmed 14 lifetime appointments to the…”

“With this confirmation--and I expect Mr. Wu will be confirmed--we will have confirmed 14 lifetime appointments to the Federal bench so far this year. This is March. I mention that because, when President Clinton was in office and the Republicans controlled the Senate, there were only 17 confirmations during the entire 1996 session of the Senate. For those who think there is partisanship in the confirmation of judges, yes, there has been. Fortunately, it has been my friends on the other side. Today the Senate continues, as we have since the beginning of this Congress, to make progress on judicial nominations. The Senate will consider and, I believe, confirm the nomination of George H. Wu to be a United States District Judge for the Central District of California. I have worked cooperatively with Members from both sides of the aisle on our committee and in the Senate to move quickly to consider and confirm these judicial nominations so that we can fill vacancies and improve the administration of justice in our Nation's Federal courts. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts lists 48 remaining judicial vacancies, yet the President has sent us only 27 nominations for these vacancies. Twenty-one of these vacancies--almost half--have no nominee.”