Sen. Chris Coons, a top ally of President Biden, expressed disappointment after the President vetoed a bill aimed at increasing the number of federal judges. The bill, known as the JUDGES Act, would have added 66 federal district judicial roles over the course of more than 10 years.
Coons, who served as a campaign co-chair for both of Biden’s presidential campaigns, emphasized the bipartisan nature of the bill, which was crafted with Republican Sen. Todd Young. However, he placed the blame for the bill’s failure on House Republicans, who voted on the bill after the 2024 election.
“Senator Young and I took pains to make this a nonpartisan process, structuring the JUDGES Act so that Congress could pass the bill before any of us – Republican or Democrat – knew who would occupy the White House in 2025 and therefore nominate the new federal judges,” Coons said.
The Senate passed the bill unanimously in August, but House Republicans waited until after the election to move forward with the bill. As a result, the White House issued a veto threat, which President Biden followed through on.
Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, accused Biden of politicizing the process and using the veto threat to avoid giving President-elect Trump new roles to fill. The bill would have added federal district judicial roles, but would have done so in a way that spread the creation of new positions out over more than 10 years, preventing a surge in new appointments for any one administration.
The bill’s failure marks a setback for efforts to address the growing backlog of cases in federal courts.
