Patrick Leahy: “I am delighted to see two more hostages released by the Republican majority to serve the American people as Federal…”

“I am delighted to see two more hostages released by the Republican majority to serve the American people as Federal judges. Anticipation of the President's radio address on the judicial vacancy crisis has obviously reached the Senate. I expect even those who have spent so much time this year holding up the confirmations of Federal judges were uncomfortable defending this Senate's record of having proceeded on only 9 of the 61 nominees received through August of this year. As rumors of the President's impending address have circulated around Capitol Hill, this Senate has literally doubled its confirmations from 9 to 18 in the course of 23 days. That demonstrates just how low the Senate's output has been over the first 8 months of this year. With these two confirmations, the Senate will have finally achieved the snail-like pace of confirming two judges a month while still faced with almost 100 vacancies. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership has once again chosen to skip over the nomination of Margaret Morrow and that of Christina Snyder who have been nominated to be district court judges in the Central District of California.”