For the relief of Judge John S. Unpingco.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3632) to provide improvements for the operations of the Federal courts, and for other purposes.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to bring to the floor H.R. 3632, the Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009. This bill will enact basic improvements to the Federal courts to ensure that our Federal court system is efficient and effective.

The first section of H.R. 3632 seeks to address an inconsistency in the law on the eligibility of senior judges to participate in court governance matters. This minor change will ensure that senior judges have the ability to participate in the selection of magistrate judges.

This legislation will also streamline the work of the District of North Dakota by eliminating references to divisions while maintaining the present situation that North Dakota constitutes one judicial district.

H.R. 3632 will also correct inequalities among the members of the judiciary. First, it adjusts the disability retirement coverage and cost-of-living annuity adjustments of four territorial judges so that these members of the judiciary will be treated like other term judges, such as bankruptcy and magistrate judges. Second, this bill will change the annual leave limit for judiciary branch executives, and it will adjust the pay scale.

H.R. 3632 also makes some minor adjustments for criminal matters. For example, it will improve the control and protection of confidential information by allowing the courts to separate the Judgment and Statement of Reasons forms. In addition, small changes will clarify the scope and authority of Federal pretrial service officers to assist juveniles.

Finally, H.R. 3632 will change the timeline for the statistical reporting of criminal wiretapping orders by extending the deadline for judges to file these orders, by several months, with the Administrative Office of the Courts. Wiretap reports will continue to be provided annually to Congress, but this change will ease the administrative burden on judges, and it will make those annual reports more accurate.

This noncontroversial legislation has bipartisan support. It has the full backing of the Judicial Conference of the United States, and the Senate recently introduced companion legislation. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that this is a noncontroversial, bipartisan bill.

As a Tennesseean who represents the district, which over, maybe, give or take, 200 years ago was represented by Davy Crockett, who went to Texas and made sure that these two fine gentlemen weren't part of a territory or part of a foreign nation, I am proud to work with them to see that this legislation comes to the floor.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding, and I also thank my colleague on the Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Speaker, the purpose of H.R. 3632 is to implement noncontroversial administrative provisions that the Judicial Conference and the House Judiciary Committee believe are necessary to improve the operations of the Federal judiciary and to provide justice for the American people.

The Judicial Conference is the policymaking body of the Federal judiciary, and through its committee system, it evaluates court operations. The Conference endorses all of the provisions in the bill.

H.R. 3632 affects a wide range of judicial branch programs and operations, including those pertaining to financial administration, process improvements and personnel administration.

The bill incorporates nine separate items, which, Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record at this point.

A section that clarifies that senior judges must satisfy

minimum work thresholds to participate in court government

matters, including the selection of magistrates.

A section that eliminates the references to divisions and

counties in the statutory description of the Judicial

District of North Dakota, which enables the court to better

distribute the workload between two active district judges

and reduce travel for litigants in the northern central area

of the district.

A section that authorizes the ``statement of reasons'' that

judges must issue upon sentencing to be filed separately with

the court. Current law requires the statement to be bundled

with other information in the case file distributed to the

Sentencing Commission, where it can be difficult to maintain

a seal related to confidential information.

A section that specifies that federal pretrial services

officers can provide the same services to juveniles as they

do for adult offenders. An example would be drug treatment.

And a section that applies an inflationary index to the

threshold amount requiring approval by the chief judge of

reimbursements for the cost of hiring expert witnesses and

conducting investigations for indigent defendants. The dollar

thresholds are statutorily fixed and erode over time. This

means chief judges must devote greater time approving what

are otherwise not genuine ``high-dollar'' requests.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3632 is necessary to improve the functioning of the U.S. courts, which will ultimately benefit the American people. This is a noncontroversial bill, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

I rise today in support of the passage of H.R. 3632, The Federal Judiciary Administrative Improvements Act of 2009. The passage of this bill in the House marks an important step towards addressing administrative disparities between federal judges serving under the authority of Article IV of the Constitution and Article III federal judges. Specifically, section 4 of H.R. 3632 addresses disparities in disability retirement and cost of living adjustments of annuities for territorial judges. While this bill takes a positive step in addressing these disparities, there is still work to be done on this issue. The House has previously passed this important legislation and I hope the Senate will take up this bill to improve the administration of our nation's federal court system.

I support legislation that addresses these disparities and have introduced legislation that calls for more equal treatment of territorial federal judges. H.R. 910 addresses one of the disparities in treatment of federal judges regarding the specific case of Judge John S. Unpingco, who served as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of Guam but due to the ten year term limit of Article IV judges, did not fulfill the service requirement to receive a full annuity. Article III judges serve for life.

I commend Congressman Hank Johnson, as well as Chairman Conyers and Ranking Member Smith for their work and leadership on improving our nation's federal judiciary and I look forward to working with them in the future to further address the issue of disparities of territorial federal judges.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3632, and I yield as much time as he wishes to consume to the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith).

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, as the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee has noted, Mr. Smith from Texas, H.R. 3632 contains a number of administrative improvements to title 28 of the United States Code which will improve the operations and efficiency of the Federal judiciary. The previous speakers have highlighted many of the provisions set forth in H.R. 3632, but I would like to note two specific items:

First, section 4 of the legislation adjusts the disability retirement coverage and COLA adjustments of territorial judges, thereby reducing existing inequities between them and other term judges, such as magistrate and bankruptcy judges. The CBO estimates that this will not result in an increase in direct spending.

Second, section 5 of the bill extends to senior executives in the Federal courts, the Federal Judiciary Center and Sentencing Commission the same ability to carry over up to 90 days of annual leave just as comparable officials within the executive branch and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts are treated.

Mr. Speaker, such changes are obscure but necessary to increase efficiency in our Federal courts, and I urge all Members to support the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.