House Clears Bill to Make Temporary Judge Seats Permanent

The House cleared bipartisan legislation to convert all federal temporary judgeships into permanent positions, part of an effort to relieve pressure on overburdened courts after President Joe Biden threatened to veto broader legislation.

The House voted 390-0 on Monday in favor of the Senate-passed bill (S. 3998) under a streamlined procedure for legislation that has broad support in the chamber, sending it to Biden’s desk for signature. It passed the Senate via voice vote in April.

The bill would make permanent the existing 10 temporary federal district judgeships in 10 states. Those judgeships all have been in place for decades and are generally renewed in annual budget packages. Three of those temporary seats were authorized in 1990, and the remaining seven have been authorized since 2002, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), the lead Democrat sponsor on the Senate bill, said it is “heartening to see broad bipartisan consensus on this commonsense federal courts bill” and that she looks forward to Biden signing it into law.

“This legislation will ensure that people in Hawaii, Texas, and across the country can continue to rely on these longstanding temporary judgeships,” Hirono said through a spokesperson.

Its passage comes days after the House cleared broader legislation, known as the JUDGES Act, targeting federal court resources, which would add 66 new judgeships to the federal trial courts over the next decade and make some temporary judgeships permanent.

However, that once-bipartisan legislation lost Democratic support after Donald Trump won the election, and the White House has said Biden plans to veto it. Monday’s bill does not create any additional judicial appointments for Trump to fill, since it only affects courts that already have been operating with an extra judge for decades.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Penn.), who spoke on the House floor in support of the temporary judgeships bill, called it a “small but meaningful step” toward making courts more accessible.

“We can’t go back in time and pass the JUDGES Act before the election. But we can pass this legislation on a bipartisan basis to prevent the loss of ten federal judges when the current temporary judgeships expire,” Scanlon said.

Affected Courts

Monday’s narrower bill on temporary judgeships was sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Hirono, and in the House by Reps. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) and Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) The bill sponsors said in statements earlier this year when the bill passed the Senate that it would stabilize the judiciary and ensure courts don’t lose seats they’ve relied on for years.

If a court’s temporary judgeship lapses, the next opening on the bench will not be filled.

Courts that would see temporary slots made permanent include the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which has seen a recent increase in patent filings, as well as at the US District Courts for the Eastern District of Missouri and Central District of California, where vacancies have been classified as judicial emergencies.

The other federal trial courts that would see temporary seats made permanent are in Hawaii, Alabama, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, and North Carolina.