
Statement of Administration Policy: S. 4199 – Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024
STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY
(House)
(Sen. Young, R-IN, and 17 cosponsors)
The Administration opposes S. 4199, the Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act. While judicial staffing is important to the rule of law, S. 4199 is unnecessary to the efficient and effective administration of justice. The bill would create new judgeships in states where Senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies. Those efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of this bill now.
In addition, neither the House nor the Senate fully explored how the work of senior status judges and magistrate judges affects the need for new judgeships. Further, the Senate passed this bill in August, but the House refused to take it up until after the election. Hastily adding judges with just a few weeks left in the 118th Congress would fail to resolve key questions in the legislation, especially regarding how the judges are allocated.
If the President were presented with S. 4199, he would veto it.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Statement of Administration Policy: S. 4199 – Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/375986