Leahy Praises Senate Confirmation Of U.S. Attorney, U.S. Marshal Nominees

Press Release

The Senate Thursday afternoon made further progress in clearing a lingering backlog of nominations on the calendar, confirming five U.S. Attorney and five U.S. Marshal nominations, some of which have been pending before the full Senate for more than a month.

"The Senate is beginning to make some process in clearing noncontroversial nominations," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). "I am grateful that Senate Republicans have released the holds that have prevented the confirmation of these 10 law enforcement nominations. I spoke about them, again, this morning. I thank Senator Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, for helping to clear these nominations at this time."

Leahy continued, "The Senate's work this week is a start. I hope that rather than waste the Senate's time in quorum calls, we can return to the Senate's regular practice of confirming noncontroversial nominations promptly. I hope this marks the end of Republican obstruction that has forced procedural motions to end filibusters when there is no opposition, and that they will not continue to make extensive demands for extended debate time when there is no debate. We need to get to issues that concern the American people, including Wall Street reform and patent reform. "

This week, the Senate also confirmed three nominations reported by the Judiciary Committee: Chris Schroeder to be the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy was confirmed in a 72-24 vote on Wednesday; Thomas Vanaskie was confirmed to a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a 77-20 vote on Wednesday; and earlier today, Denny Chin was confirmed to a seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous vote of 98-0. All three nominations were pending on the Senate's executive calendar for several months.

The nominations confirmed Thursday afternoon include: William N. Nettles to be a U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina; Wilfredo A. Ferrer to be a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; David A. Capp to be a U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana; Anne M. Tompkins to be a U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina; Kelly M. Nesbit to be a U.S. Marshal for the Western District of North Carolina; Peter C. Munoz to be a U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Michigan; Noel C. March to be a U.S. Marshal for the District of Maine; George White to be a U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of Mississippi; Loretta E. Lynch to be a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; and Brian T. Underwood to be a U.S. Marshal for the District of Idaho.

The Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously voted to report four additional U.S. Attorney nominations to the full Senate for consideration.

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