Asked to chair this afternoon’s Judiciary Committee hearing on five nominees to the federal bench, Senator Coons took the opportunity to urge his colleagues to move more quickly on judicial confirmations.
“I am disheartened that the Senate stands poised to spend 30 hours over the coming days engaged in protracted, post-cloture ‘debate’ regarding the nomination of one U.S. District Court judge,” Senator Coons said. “To have to file cloture on a district court nominee who has the unanimous support of his home state senators is nearly unprecedented.”
At issue was the nomination of John McConnell of Rhode Island, whose confirmation today was slowed by a cloture vote and the accompanying 30-hour period for debate. (Several hours after the debate period began, Republicans conceded back the time and allowed the confirmation vote to proceed early this evening.)
There are 93 vacancies on the federal bench, of which 37 are considered “judicial emergencies” because they have been open for more than 18 months, forcing other judges on those courts to shoulder an overly burdensome caseload.
“Today, Attorney General Holder testified before this very committee that the number of vacancies has created a crisis in our courts,” Chris said in his opening statement. “This is not a partisan issue – Chief Justice Roberts has similarly noted that the vacancies are causing acute difficulties for some judicial districts.”
Download an MP3 audio file of Chris’ opening statement here.