Today, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs meets to consider the nominations of Carol Dalton, Anthony Epstein, and Heidi Pasichow, to be Associate Judges on the District of Columbia Superior Court.

The nominees have an impressive range and depth of experience. Judge Dalton has been a magistrate judge on the Family Court of the D.C. Superior Court since 2002 and prior to that she had considerable experience in family law and other fields. Mr. Epstein has approximately 30 years of legal experience in a variety of areas of law and he is a partner at the law firm Steptoe & Johnson. Ms. Pasichow has worked as a prosecutor in the Office of the United States Attorney for more than twenty years, currently working to investigate and prosecute cold cases in the Homicide Section.

I am particularly gratified to be holding this hearing today, which had been delayed due to a technical error in the District of Columbia Family Court Act. That Act increased the number of judges for the D.C. Family Court but failed to increase the overall cap in D.C. Superior Court Judges. All of the nominations before the Committee today have been pending for quite some time because the Senate was unable to confirm Superior Court nominees as judges retired. This spring, Congress enacted legislation, S. 550, which I introduced with Senators Lieberman and Voinovich. That Act increased the total number of D.C. Superior Court judges to correct the problem, allowing us to move forward with these nominations. The fact that each of you are sitting here today suggests that you have the patience and dedication to make a good judge.

Judge Dalton, Mr. Epstein, and Ms. Pasichow, I congratulate you on your nominations, and I look forward to hearing your testimony today.

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