Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am honored to support the nomination of Nancy Torresen to be a U.S. District Judge for Maine. She is eminently well qualified to be confirmed. She has led an exemplary career of public service, culminating in her current position as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Ms. Torresen graduated from Hope College cum laude in 1981 and received her law degree cum laude in 1987 from the University of Michigan Law School where she was executive editor of the Law Review. After graduation, she came to Maine to serve as a law clerk to the extraordinarily well-respected Maine Judge Conrad Cyr. From 1988 to 1990, she worked at the law firm Williams and Connolly here in Washington.

In 1990, she had the good judgment to return to Maine when she became an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maine and initially handled civil matters involving Federal agencies.

In 1994, she was assigned to the appellate section of the criminal division of the Maine attorney general's office where she was responsible for representing the State in appeals of serious violent crime convictions.

In 2001, Ms. Torresen returned to the U.S. attorney's office where she has been responsible for investigating and prosecuting Federal crimes in the northern half of Maine.

I am impressed by her dedication and passion for the law. I also appreciate her 21-year long commitment to public service. She has remarked that she is proudest of her criminal prosecution efforts because of the urgent need to protect the public from violent criminals and her desire not to let down the victims.

One of her more significant cases was the recent prosecution of a multistate bank robber dubbed the ``Burly Bandit.'' From April through July, Robert Ferguson robbed more than 10 banks and credit unions throughout New England. The spree ended with a robbery of Bangor Savings Bank in July, and on October 1 of last year Mr. Ferguson pleaded guilty in U.S. district court in Bangor to 11 counts of bank robbery. Maine's U.S. attorney recognized Ms. Torresen for her outstanding work in coordinating the prosecution in the six States.

Except for a brief stint in private practice, Ms. Torresen's entire career has been that of a dedicated public servant. She is well respected in the legal community and was rated ``unanimously well-qualified'' by the American Bar Association.

Let me share one of my many conversations with her colleagues in the Maine legal community. Tim Woodcock is a well-known attorney in Bangor, whose comments are very typical of what I heard when I called and asked people what they thought of Ms. Torresen. Tim said that he regards her as ``highly professional, extremely capable, tough, but fair and is a strong advocate for the adherence by law enforcement to all legal requirements.''

These are all qualities that we should look for in our judicial nominees. Ms. Torresen's work as a prosecutor in both the Federal and State judicial systems, her integrity, her temperament, and her respect for precedent make her well qualified to serve as Maine's next Federal judge.

Maine has a long, proud history of superb federal judges, and I believe that Ms. Torresen will continue that tradition if confirmed.

I urge my colleagues to support her nomination.

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