Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from the consideration of H.R. 2517 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 706, S. 431.

I ask unanimous consent a Schumer amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the committee amendments, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 571.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to; the preamble be agreed to; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

I ask unanimous consent that we now look at the Judiciary Committee and discharge that committee from further consideration of H. Con. Res. 354.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration and the Senate proceed to S. Con. Res. 79.

I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to this matter be printed in the Record.

I understand there are two bills at the desk. I ask for their first reading en bloc.

I now ask for their second reading en bloc and object to my own requests en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, May 21; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each, with the majority controlling the first 30 minutes and the Republicans controlling the next 30 minutes, and that the time from 11 a.m. until 12 noon be reserved for Senators to make tributes to former President Lyndon B. Johnson in honor of the centennial of his birth, with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that we resume the matter we received from the House--the message from the House I filed cloture on just a short time ago, that underlying legislation--that we resume that tomorrow after morning business.

Mr. President, during the time reserved for the Johnson tributes, Senators will speak in an alternating fashion between the majority and the Republicans. The Senate is expected to resume consideration of the House message--which we just got permission to do--following that.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Madam President, I received a call early Saturday morning that Senator Kennedy had taken ill. Since that time, we have heard only encouraging words from his doctors and his family. I spoke to Vicki, his wonderful wife, a couple hours ago. He is resting comfortably. He is having some more tests run today. He is doing very well. Vicki tells me Senator Kennedy is not only up moving around, but over the weekend he was able to watch some movies, but, more importantly, he was able to watch some Red Sox games. I would note in passing, it cannot hurt his recovery that the Red Sox have won three games in a row.

Anyone who knows Senator Kennedy and his tremendous work ethic realizes no one is more eager to get back to work than Senator Kennedy.

So to my good friend, the Senator from Massachusetts, I say: Rest and get well. All of your friends and colleagues in the Senate wish you the very best and look forward to your quick return because there is a lot of work we are depending on you to do. We have a number of things, of course, we were working on together last week.

I talked to him Friday at some length. I am going to give a couple speeches--actually three--on Wednesday because we are having celebrations here in the Capitol on the 100th birthday of Senator, Majority Leader, and President Johnson. It was interesting to hear Senator Kennedy--who had worked with him in all of his capacities, as Senator, majority leader, Vice President, and President--some of the comments he had about President Johnson.

So we look forward to Ted being back as soon as possible.

Madam President, following leader time, there will be a period of morning business for Senators, and they will be able to speak for up to 10 minutes each. There are no votes today, but this is going to be a very busy week. We have a certain number of things we have to do.

We are going to do as many circuit judges as we can. We will certainly at least do one. We have the budget conference report we have to complete. We hope to go to that on Thursday at about 4 o'clock. And, of course, the big one we have to do is the supplemental appropriations bill regarding the war funding in Iraq. Those things we have to complete before we leave here. The budget and the supplemental we have to finish before we leave.

As I indicated, we are going to have some things here on Wednesday in the Capitol regarding President Johnson. From 11 until 12 noon on Wednesday, there will be a time set aside on the Senate floor for tributes to the former President on the centennial of his birth.

Madam President, I expect the Senate will consider the nomination of Steven Agee to a Virginia seat on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Agee is currently a member of the Virginia Supreme Court. His nomination to the Federal bench is supported by both Senators Webb and Warner, and I am confident he will be confirmed overwhelmingly.

Several weeks ago, I pledged my best efforts to have, by the Memorial Day recess, three circuit court nominations completed--by Memorial Day, as I said. I explicitly said at that time that ``I cannot guarantee'' three confirmations because the outcome would depend on factors that are certainly beyond my control. Still, Senator Leahy and I have worked hard to move three appellate nominees this month. Judge Agee is one of those three. The next two it appears, in line are Sixth Circuit nominees Raymond Kethledge and Helene White, both of Michigan.

These nominees are the product of an agreement between the White House and Senators Levin and Stabenow. It took about 5 or 6 years to work out this agreement, but we now have a chance to fill the vacancies on that circuit.

Senator Leahy expedited consideration of the Michigan nominees in light of the pledge I made. I did that with the full understanding of Senator Leahy. Unfortunately, though, Senators on the Republican side on the Judiciary Committee have delayed consideration of Judge White.

I do not know what you would say about what took place at our hearing. Senators have a right to ask questions. They can ask questions. There is certainly leeway. They can basically ask anything they want, and they did. They, following the hearing, asked a total of 73 separate written questions, and some of them were very, very time consuming. As I said, every Senator has a right to ask questions of a nominee, but the number and nature of the questions posed to Judge White suggest there was more to it than just the questions. They went into some things very personal in nature that I am not certain were probative as to this good woman's ability to be a circuit court judge.

In addition, Republicans have insisted that the nomination not move forward until Judge White's ABA review is complete. That is fine with us. They have that right. But in this case, it is ironic they would make that request since she was rated qualified by the ABA 10 years ago when Republicans blocked her nomination from moving forward. Since that time, she has been a sitting Michigan appellate court judge.

It is still possible the Senate will consider these two Michigan nominees before the recess. But if it does not happen, it will be despite my best efforts. I indicated I want to do everything I can to complete this. But we have to have the ABA report, and these questions, as I have indicated, have to be completed.

It is pretty clear these 34 numbered questions I have talked about--a number of them were compound questions, and that is how we arrived at the number 73--some of these are straightforward questions about judicial philosophy, but there are a number of others that are very time consuming and I am not sure bear on her qualifications. But they have a right to ask those questions.

For example, Senator Sessions asked Judge White to compile her caseload statistics as compared with other judges on her court, including the median time intervals between case filing and date of disposition. Think about that. That is a lot of work, a lot of math. Senator Specter asked her to supply names and addresses of the groups involved in panel discussions, conferences, and meetings she attended, as well as numerous unpublished opinions.

These are not unreasonable questions, but they are time consuming and they were submitted right before the deadline for submitting written questions to the nominee.

In contrast, Republicans asked Mr. Kethledge--the so-called Republican nominee--the other Michigan nominee, only seven questions, and they were all pretty easy; none of them burdensome questions.

Republicans preferred that Chairman Leahy, I guess, consider other nominees before the Michigan nominees, but nothing in my pledge regarding judicial nominations deprives Chairman Leahy of his prerogative to determine the sequence of nominations that would come before his committee.

No one presumed to instruct Senator Specter about the sequence of nominations during the years he served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. And certainly Senator Hatch exercised the chairman's prerogatives freely during the years in which more than 60 of President Clinton's nominees were denied hearings or floor consideration.

Chairman Leahy and I will continue to process judicial nominations in due course, consistent with the Senate's constitutional role. Consideration of Judge Agee's nomination tomorrow is consistent with that goal.

Madam President, is there going to be a period of morning business now?

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.