Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, tonight, the Senate will vote on the
nomination of George Hanks to be a district judge for the Southern
District of Texas. If confirmed, Judge Hanks will be the President's
309th judicial nominee confirmed since this President took office. By
comparison, at the same point in his Presidency, President Bush had
only 273 judicial nominees confirmed.

Despite some of the complaints that we are hearing from my colleagues
on the other side, we are moving judicial nominees at about the same
pace as we did at this point in President Bush's Presidency. One
difference, of course, is how the Senate handled the judicial nominees
that were reported out of the committee during the lameduck session.

Historically, the Senate doesn't confirm judges at the end of a
Congress if those judges are reported out of committee during a
lameduck. The reason for this, of course, is so the newly elected
Members have an opportunity for their voices to be heard. For instance,
that is what happened in 2006 when the Senate returned 13 judicial
nominees to the President. Those nominees were then renominated in 2007
and eventually confirmed in the new Congress, but the Senate Democrats
did not follow tradition last year. Instead of following standard
practice, Senate Democrats confirmed 11 judicial nominees who were
reported out of committee during the lameduck session. Had they
followed standard practice, we would have voted on those nominees at
the beginning of this year, just as the committee did with the nominees
that were resubmitted in 2007.

At the end of the day, when we include the 11 district court nominees
who were confirmed at the end of last year, we are at about the same
pace that the Democratically led Senate was in 2007 during the Bush
administration. This is further confirmed when you compare the
committee's work this year to 2007. In 2007, at this point in the
Congress, the committee had held three nominee hearings for a total of
10 judges.

As of right now, the Judiciary Committee has already held 4
nomination hearings for a total of 10 nominees. These nominees include
six judges and four executive nominees, including both the Attorney
General and Deputy Attorney General nominees.

The bottom line is the Senate Judiciary Committee is treating the
President's nominees extremely fairly. He has had dozens more nominees
confirmed than President Bush did at this point in his Presidency. I
expect another one will be confirmed tonight, and I congratulate Judge
Hanks on his pending nomination and urge my colleagues to vote
accordingly.

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