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“NOMINATION OF JOSEPH NORMAND LAPLANTE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S15700-S15701 on Dec. 14, 2007.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NOMINATION OF JOSEPH NORMAND LAPLANTE
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I am pleased that we can take a break from the tired partisan sniping from the other side of the aisle to continue, as we have all year, making progress considering and confirming the President's judicial nominations.
The complaints we hear more and more loudly as we approach an election year from the President and others ring hollow. Last month, the Judiciary Committee reached a milestone by reporting out 4 more nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal bench, reaching 40 in this session of Congress alone. That exceeds the totals reported in each of the previous 2 years, when a Republican-led Judiciary Committee was considering this President's nominees.
Today we consider the nomination of Joseph Normand Laplante, who has been nominated to fill a vacancy in the Northern District of Texas. Joseph is well known to many of us Vermonters as he has spent much of his professional career working for our friends to the east in the old Granite State of New Hampshire and our friends to the south in the Bay State of Massachusetts. Joseph serves as the first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Hampshire. Before that, Joseph served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District of Massachusetts, a trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department's Criminal Division, and a senior assistant attorney general for the State of New Hampshire Office of the Attorney General. He also has experience as a private practitioner in New Hampshire. Joseph graduated from Georgetown University in 1987 and from the Georgetown Law Center in 1990.
I thank Senator Gregg and Senator Sununu for their consideration of this nomination and Senator Whitehouse for chairing the confirmation hearing.
When we confirm the nomination we consider today, the Senate will have confirmed 38 nominations for lifetime appointments to the Federal bench this session alone. That is more than the total number of judicial nominations that a Republican-led Senate confirmed in all of 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005 or 2006 with a Republican Majority. It is 21 more confirmations than were achieved during the entire 1996 session, more than double that session's total of 17, when Republicans stalled consideration of President Clinton's nominations.
When this nomination is confirmed, the Senate will have confirmed 138 total Federal judicial nominees in my tenure as Judiciary Chairman. During the Bush Presidency, more circuit judges, more district judges--
more total judges--were confirmed in the first 24 months that I served as Judiciary Chairman than during the 2-year tenures of either of the two Republican Chairmen working with Republican Senate majorities.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will list 45 judicial vacancies and 14 circuit court vacancies after today's confirmation. Compare that to the numbers at the end of the 109th Congress, when the total vacancies under a Republican controlled Judiciary Committee were 51 judicial vacancies and 15 circuit court vacancies. That means that despite the additional 5 vacancies that arose at the beginning of the 110th Congress, the current vacancy totals under my chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee are below where they were under a Republican-led Judiciary Committee. They are only a little more than half of what they were at the end of President Clinton's term, when Republican pocket filibusters allowed judicial vacancies to rise to 80, 26 of them for circuit courts.
Despite the progress we have made, I will continue to work to find new ways to be productive on judicial nominations. Just last month, I sent the President a letter urging him to work with me, Senator Specter, and home State Senators to send us more well-qualified, consensus nominations. Now is the time for him to send us more nominations that could be considered and confirmed as his Presidency approaches its last year, before the Thurmond Rule kicks in.
As I noted in that letter, I have been concerned that several recent nominations seem to be part of an effort to pick political fights rather than judges to fill vacancies. For example, President Bush nominated Duncan Getchell to one of Virginia's Fourth Circuit Vacancies over the objections of Senator Webb, a Democrat, and Senator Warner, a Republican. They had submitted a list of five recommended nominations, and specifically warned the White House not to nominate Mr. Getchell. As a result, this nomination that is opposed by Democratic and Republican home state Senators is one that cannot move.
When the President sends on well-qualified consensus nominations, we can work together and continue to make progress as we are today.
I congratulate Joseph and his family on his confirmation today.
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