Patrick Leahy: “Mr. President, it took the Senate the entire month of June to pass S. Res. 120, a very simple resolution in which we…”

“Mr. President, it took the Senate the entire month of June to pass S. Res. 120, a very simple resolution in which we organized our committees. As one Senator, I am sorry we lost the month of June to the process of reorganizing the Senate, but I am proud of the very quick start of the Judiciary Committee on holding hearings and reporting nominees. I sent out official notice of the committee's first hearing on judicial nominations within 10 minutes after the majority leader announced an agreement had been reached on reorganization. The hearing on judicial nominations was held the very first day after committee membership assignments were completed earlier this month. We expedited committee consideration of the nominees by urging all Senators to propound such followup written questions as they thought necessary as soon as possible after the hearing. I included them on the committee agenda for our business meeting this week. At that meeting yesterday, the Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to report each of the judicial nominations. Each vote was 19-0, and the other nominations on the calendar were voice voted. These are the first judicial nominations heard before the committee, the first judicial nominations considered by the committee, and they will now be the first judicial nominations considered by the Senate this year.”