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WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday passed a bill that would add dozens of new judgeships to the federal judiciary despite a veto threat from President Joe Biden to what was once a bipartisan push.
The bill – known as the JUDGES Act – cleared the lower chamber largely along party lines by a vote of 236-173 on Thursday morning. Twenty-nine House Democrats joined with 207 Republican members to support the legislation.
The act – which, if signed by Biden, would add 66 new federal district judicial positions across the country over the next 10 years – already unanimously passed the Senate in August, well before November’s presidential election.
Supporters behind the originally bipartisan effort say the move would help overburdened courts amid a growing population and caseloads.
“More judges means more Americans can access equal and impartial justice without waiting years to get it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Tuesday about the bill.
But the decision to bring the bill to the House floor after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the November election added controversy to the push and its fate is now unclear after the White House said earlier this week Biden would veto it should it make it to his desk.
Democrats note the legislation would give the incoming commander in chief, in this case Trump, the chance to appoint more judges. The White House specifically noted the timing of the vote in the lower chamber in his opposition statement.
“Further, the Senate passed this bill in August, but the House refused to take it up until after the election,” the statement reads. “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.”
