Prepared Floor Statement Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Statement for the Record
President Obama's Judicial Nominations and Lawrence Vilardo of New York, to be United States District Judge for the Western District of New York
Monday, October 26, 2015
Today, the Senate confirmed the 316th judicial nominee during President Obama's presidency, so I wanted to take this opportunity to provide an update on judicial nominations progress. These 316 confirmations are in contrast to the only 292 judicial nominees the Senate had confirmed by this point in 2007 during George W. Bush's presidency. So, at this point in their respective seventh year of Presidency, President Obama has 24 more judicial nominees confirmed than President Bush did.
Furthermore, contrary to what one might hear, there is no judicial vacancy crisis. This year has the lowest average vacancy rate during Obama's Presidency, and is among the lowest in the last 25 years. Both the district and circuit courts are over 92 percent filled.
As I have said before, the Senate Judiciary Committee is moving at the same pace this year that it did under Democrat control in 2007 during the last two years of President Bush's presidency. By this point in 2007, the committee had held 10 hearings for a total of 29 nominees (26 judicial nominees and 3 executive nominees). We have held 9 hearings for a total of 29 nominees (24 judicial nominees and 5 executive nominees) including hearings for both the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General.
I just wanted to set the record straight and remind all my colleagues that the Senate continues to make good progress on judicial nominations.
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