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“NOMINATION OF JEFFREY HOWARD” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Senate section on pages S1696-S1697 on March 8, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
NOMINATION OF JEFFREY HOWARD
Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. Madam President, there has been a lot of discussion about the Pickering nomination and about the delay in approving judges. It seems to be a perennial issue. Senator Specter just spoke about it. But there are times when we need to put some of these partisan feelings behind us and look at some of these nominations.
I rise to discuss the nomination of Jeffrey Howard to be a justice for the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Attorney Howard is like many other of President Bush's nominees who have yet to even receive a hearing. These men and women whom we nominate, their lives go on hold. They have law practices. They have responsibilities. They have families. What do you do?
Jeff Howard is a young man. He has a family. He was nominated on August 2, 2001. I was pleased to have been the prime mover and sponsor of that nomination because Jeff Howard is extremely well qualified for this position. But his nomination, with all due respect to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has now been pending for 217 days.
The vacancy he was nominated to fill was formerly held by Judge Norman Stahl. This vacancy was created on April 16, 2001. You may want to keep this in mind. We are almost to the first-year anniversary of the creation of the vacancy, and yet, how does he conduct his law practice? How does he take on new clients? What does he do?
His paperwork has been complete since September 20, 2001. Both Senator Gregg and I returned our blue ships--that means approval slips--on September 20, 2001. There is no reason this nomination cannot have a hearing. There is no controversy here. He should have a hearing.
Jeff Howard has an impressive array of legal experience that well qualifies him to be a Federal appellate judge. He served as U.S. attorney for New Hampshire from 1989 to 1993. In that post, he litigated numerous cases at both the trial and appellate levels and was a member of the Attorney General's Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys. For his efforts, he received the Attorney General's Edmund Randolph Award as well as the U.S. Attorneys' Award.
He has Federal experience that includes a stint as principal associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1991 to 1992. He performed this job at the request of former Attorney General Bill Barr. In addition to his work as U.S. attorney, he served as attorney general of New Hampshire from 1993 to 1997 and deputy attorney general in 1988 and 1989. In these State and Federal capabilities, Jeff Howard has been involved in thousands of litigated matters covering the full range of issues that are going to come before him as a Federal judge.
In particular, he has been either on the brief or lead counsel in more than 100 cases in the First Circuit, the court to which the President has nominated him. Over the last 10 years, he has performed approximately 2,500 hours of pro bono work for victims of domestic violence.
He grew up on his grandfather's dairy farm in Cornish, NH, and later graduated from Plymouth State College with a B.A. and later Georgetown Law School, and he was editor of the American Criminal Law Review.
This is a well qualified judge. He should be on the court. He does not deserve this kind of treatment. How are we going to get good people to come forth and take these jobs when their lives are put on hold for years, sometimes, let alone months and days?
The circuit court nomination pace is incredible. During the first year of the Clinton administration, only five court of appeals nominees were nominated. Of those five, three were reported out that same year. That is 60 percent of President Clinton's court of appeals nominees. In contrast, President Bush has nominated 29, and the committee has only reported 6. That is 21 percent. There were only two circuit court nominees left pending in committee at the end of President Clinton's first year in office. In contrast, there were 23 of President Bush's circuit court nominees pending in committee at the end of last year.
It is unfair to compare the first years of the second Bush administration and the Clinton administration by looking only at the mere number of nominees confirmed. This approach fails to take into account the fact that President Bush chose to nominate 24 more circuit court nominees than President Clinton did. We can get lost in the numbers, and I don't want to go through it.
I just repeat that Jeff Howard is as highly qualified a judge for the First Circuit as any judge I have seen. Yet we still have the nomination pending without even a hearing. His life is on hold. His family's life is on hold. I appeal to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee to give this good, decent, honorable judge a hearing so we have the opportunity to bring his nomination forth and put him on the bench where he belongs and where I was proud to support him.
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