Us Congress 2023-2024 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB2420 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	118THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 2420
5	5	To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to provide for the
6	6	automatic appointment of judges to the District of Columbia courts
7	7	without the advice and consent of the Senate, and for other purposes.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	JULY20, 2023
10	10	Mr. C
11	11	ARPER(for himself, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mr. KAINE, Mr. CARDIN, and
12	12	Mr. B
13	13	OOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
14	14	ferred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
15	15	A BILL
16	16	To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to pro-
17	17	vide for the automatic appointment of judges to the
18	18	District of Columbia courts without the advice and con-
19	19	sent of the Senate, and for other purposes.
20	20	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
21	21	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
22	22	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
23	23	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘District of Columbia 4
24	24	Courts Judicial Vacancy Reduction Act’’. 5
25	25	SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES TO DIS-6
26	26	TRICT OF COLUMBIA COURTS. 7
27	27	(a) A
28	28	PPOINTMENTS BYPRESIDENT.— 8
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32	32	(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 433(a) of the Dis-1
33	33	trict of Columbia Home Rule Act (sec. 1–204.33(a), 2
34	34	D.C. Official Code) is amended by striking ‘‘the 3
35	35	President shall nominate’’ and all that follows and 4
36	36	inserting the following: ‘‘from the list of persons rec-5
37	37	ommended by the District of Columbia Judicial 6
38	38	Nomination Commission established under section 7
39	39	434, the President shall appoint all judges of the 8
40	40	District of Columbia courts.’’. 9
41	41	(2) C
42	42	ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 433 10
43	43	of such Act (sec. 1–204.33, D.C. Official Code) is 11
44	44	further amended— 12
45	45	(A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘
46	46	NOMINA-13
47	47	TION AND’’; 14
48	48	(B) in subsection (b)— 15
49	49	(i) in the matter preceding paragraph 16
50	50	(1), by striking ‘‘nominated or’’; 17
51	51	(ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘his 18
52	52	nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-19
53	53	ment’’; 20
54	54	(iii) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘his 21
55	55	nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-22
56	56	ment’’; 23
57	57	(iv) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘the 24
58	58	President, for such nomination and ap-25
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62	62	pointment,’’ and inserting ‘‘the President 1
63	63	for such appointment’’; and 2
64	64	(v) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘his 3
65	65	nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-4
66	66	ment’’; and 5
67	67	(C) in subsection (c)— 6
68	68	(i) in the fifth sentence, by striking 7
69	69	‘‘then the President may nominate’’ and all 8
70	70	that follows and inserting ‘‘the President 9
71	71	may reappoint such candidate as judge.’’; 10
72	72	(ii) in the sixth sentence, by striking 11
73	73	‘‘not to so nominate such declaring can-12
74	74	didate, he shall nominate another can-13
75	75	didate’’ and inserting ‘‘not to so reappoint 14
76	76	such declaring candidate, the President 15
77	77	shall appoint another candidate’’; and 16
78	78	(iii) in the seventh sentence, by strik-17
79	79	ing ‘‘then the President shall not submit to 18
80	80	the Senate for advice and consent the re-19
81	81	nomination of the declaring candidate as 20
82	82	judge’’ and inserting ‘‘the President shall 21
83	83	not reappoint the declaring candidate as 22
84	84	judge’’. 23
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88	88	(3) CLERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-1
89	89	tents of such Act is amended by amending the item 2
90	90	relating to section 433 to read as follows: 3
91	91	‘‘Sec. 433. Appointment of judges.’’.
92	92	(b) APPOINTMENTS BY JUDICIALNOMINATIONCOM-4
93	93	MISSION.—Section 434(d) of such Act (sec. 1–204.34(d), 5
94	94	D.C. Official Code) is amended— 6
95	95	(1) in paragraph (1)— 7
96	96	(A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘for 8
97	97	possible nomination and appointment’’ and in-9
98	98	serting ‘‘for possible appointment’’; 10
99	99	(B) in the second sentence, by striking 11
100	100	‘‘more than one nominee’’ and inserting ‘‘more 12
101	101	than one person’’; 13
102	102	(C) in the third sentence, by striking ‘‘of 14
103	103	nominees’’; and 15
104	104	(D) in the fourth sentence— 16
105	105	(i) by striking ‘‘the President fails to 17
106	106	nominate, for Senate confirmation,’’ and 18
107	107	inserting ‘‘the President fails to appoint’’; 19
108	108	and 20
109	109	(ii) by striking ‘‘the Commission shall 21
110	110	nominate, and with the advice and consent 22
111	111	of the Senate, appoint’’ and inserting ‘‘the 23
112	112	Commission shall appoint’’; and 24
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116	116	(2) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘nomination’’ 1
117	117	each place it appears and inserting ‘‘appointment’’. 2
118	118	SEC. 3. AUTHORIZING CONGRESS TO PREVENT APPOINT-3
119	119	MENT THROUGH RESOLUTION OF DIS-4
120	120	APPROVAL. 5
121	121	(a) R
122	122	ESOLUTIONS OFDISAPPROVAL.—Part C of title 6
123	123	IV of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (sec. 1– 7
124	124	204.31 et seq., D.C. Official Code) is amended by insert-8
125	125	ing after section 434 the following new section: 9
126	126	‘‘
127	127	AUTHORIZING CONGRESS TO PREVENT APPOINTMENT 10
128	128	THROUGH RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL 11
129	129	‘‘S
130	130	EC. 434A. (a) REQUIRINGTRANSMISSION OFNO-12
131	131	TICE OFAPPOINTMENT TOCONGRESS.—Notice of the ap-13
132	132	pointment of a judge of a District of Columbia court under 14
133	133	this part shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House 15
134	134	of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the 16
135	135	Senate by— 17
136	136	‘‘(1) the President, in the case of an appoint-18
137	137	ment under section 433; or 19
138	138	‘‘(2) the District of Columbia Judicial Nomina-20
139	139	tion Commission, in the case of an appointment 21
140	140	under section 434(d)(1). 22
141	141	‘‘(b) T
142	142	IMING OFAPPOINTMENT.—The appointment 23
143	143	of a judge of the District of Columbia courts shall take 24
144	144	effect upon the expiration of the 60-calendar-day period 25
145	145	(excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and any day 26
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148	148	•S 2420 IS
149	149	on which neither House is in session because of an ad-1
150	150	journment sine die, a recess of more than three days, or 2
151	151	an adjournment of more than three days) beginning on 3
152	152	the date on which notice of the appointment is transmitted 4
153	153	to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 5
154	154	President pro tempore of the Senate under subsection (a), 6
155	155	unless during such 60-calendar-day period there has been 7
156	156	enacted into law a joint resolution disapproving of the ap-8
157	157	pointment. 9
158	158	‘‘(c) A
159	159	PPLICATION OFEXPEDITEDPROCEDURES FOR 10
160	160	C
161	161	ONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS OFDISAPPROVAL OF 11
162	162	C
163	163	OUNCILACTS TOCONSIDERATION OFRESOLUTIONS OF 12
164	164	D
165	165	ISAPPROVAL OFAPPOINTMENT OFJUDGES.— 13
166	166	‘‘(1) A
167	167	PPLICATION OF PROCEDURES .—The pro-14
168	168	visions of section 604 shall apply with respect to a 15
169	169	joint resolution described in paragraph (2) in the 16
170	170	same manner and to the same extent as such provi-17
171	171	sions apply to a joint resolution which is described 18
172	172	in section 604(b) and which disapproves an act of 19
173	173	the District of Columbia Council which is trans-20
174	174	mitted pursuant to section 602(c)(1). 21
175	175	‘‘(2) R
176	176	ESOLUTIONS DESCRIBED .—A resolution 22
177	177	described in this paragraph is a resolution, the mat-23
178	178	ter after the resolving clause of which is as follows: 24
179	179	‘That the llllllll disapproves of the ap-25
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183	183	pointment of llllllll as a judge of the 1
184	184	llllllll .’, with the first blank filled in 2
185	185	with the name of the House of Congress involved, 3
186	186	the second blank filled in with the name of the indi-4
187	187	vidual involved, and the third blank filled in with the 5
188	188	name of the District of Columbia court involved, but 6
189	189	does not include any resolution which specifies more 7
190	190	than one action.’’. 8
191	191	(b) C
192	192	LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 9
193	193	of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating 10
194	194	to section 434 the following new item: 11
195	195	‘‘Sec. 434A. Authorizing Congress to prevent appointment through resolution of
196	196	disapproval.’’.
197	197	SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.
198	198	12
199	199	(a) I
200	200	NGENERAL.—The amendments made by this 13
201	201	Act shall apply with respect to appointments of judges of 14
202	202	the District of Columbia courts which are made on or after 15
203	203	the date of the enactment of this Act. 16
204	204	(b) T
205	205	RANSITIONRULE FORCURRENTNOMINEES.— 17
206	206	Section 434A of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act 18
207	207	(as added by section 3(a)) shall apply with respect to an 19
208	208	individual whose nomination as a judge of the District of 20
209	209	Columbia courts is pending as of the date of the enact-21
210	210	ment of this Act as follows: 22
211	211	(1) In the case of an individual nominated by 23
212	212	the President under section 433 of such Act (as in 24
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216	216	effect prior to the effective date of this Act), the 1
217	217	President shall be deemed to have transmitted notice 2
218	218	of the appointment of the individual as a judge of 3
219	219	the District of Columbia courts to the Speaker of 4
220	220	the House of Representatives and the President pro 5
221	221	tempore of the Senate on the date of the enactment 6
222	222	of this Act. 7
223	223	(2) In the case of an individual nominated by 8
224	224	the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Com-9
225	225	mission under section 434 of such Act (as in effect 10
226	226	prior to the effective date of this Act), the Commis-11
227	227	sion shall be deemed to have transmitted notice of 12
228	228	the appointment of the individual as a judge of the 13
229	229	District of Columbia courts to the Speaker of the 14
230	230	House of Representatives and the President pro 15
231	231	tempore of the Senate on the date of the enactment 16
232	232	of this Act. 17
233	233	Æ
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