Political Quotes

“I am delighted that the majority leader has decided to take up the nomination of Robert W. Pratt to be a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Iowa. Mr. Pratt is a well-qualified nominee. We first received Robert Pratt's nomination in August 1996. He was not accorded a hearing last Congress and the President renominated him on the first day of this Congress for the same vacancy on the District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. He had a confirmation hearing on March 18 where he was supported by Senator Harkin and Senator Grassley and was reported to the Senate by the Judiciary Committee on April 17, more than 4 weeks ago. With this confirmation the Senate has confirmed five Federal judges in five months--one Federal judge a month. Even with the three judicial confirmation votes today, there are still almost 100 judicial vacancies in the Federal courts. Since this session began, vacancies on the Federal bench have increased from 87 to 103 and we have proceeded to confirm only five nominees. After these three confirmations, after more than doubling our confirmation output for the entire year in this one afternoon, we still face 98 current vacancies today and that number is continuing to grow. At this rate, we are falling farther and farther behind and more and more vacancies are continuing to mount over longer and longer times to the detriment of more Americans and the national cause of prompt justice.”