today the senate proceed to executive session to consider the nomination of gerard e. lynch to be united states circuit court judge, second circuit, that there be two hours of debate with the time equally divided and controlled by senator leahy and senator sessions or their designees. upon the use or yielding back of time, that the nomination be set aside to occur upon passage of h.r. 3288. prior to the vote on confirmation of the nomination and the senate resuming executive session, there be two minutes of debate equally divided and controlled upon that confirmation. the motion to consider the vote be considered made and laid upon the table, that no further motions be in order and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection, so ordered. mrs. feinstein: thank you very much. i ask unanimous consent that the vote in relation to the johanns amendment 2394 occur on the disposition of the nomination of gerard lynch and no amendment be in order to t

the clerk: nomination, gerard e. lynch of new york to be united states circuit judge for the second circuit. the presiding officer: under the previous order, there will be two hours of debate equally divided between the senator from vermont and the senator from alabama or their designees. mr. leahy: thank you, mr. president. today the senate finally considers the nomination of gerard lynch to the second circuit. i take particular interest in this, of course, because my own state of vermont is part of the second circuit. i'm a member of that bar and i've argued cases before that court. and this is a nomination reported out of the judiciary committee over three months ago. on june 11th, we did it unanimously by voice vote. there were no dissents. when that occurred, in fact, the ranking republican members said very glowing things about judge lynch, and i just assumed he's going to be, as we did with president bush's nominees in similar situations, i assumed he would be confirmed right away. now it's nearly three months later