Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Confirmation Vote On Meredith Vacca To Be District Court Judge For the Western District Of New York

Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on today’s vote to confirm Meredith Vacca to be District Judge for the Western District of New York. If confirmed, Judge Vacca will be the first Asian American woman and the first woman of color to serve in the Western District of New York. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Today, the Senate will confirm another exceptional judicial nominee from New York, whom I recommended to President Biden: Meredith Vacca, to serve as District Judge for the Western District of New York. That's the Buffalo and Rochester areas of our state.

Judge Vacca’s confirmation will be a historic moment for Western New York. A proud Korean-American, Judge Vacca will be the first Asian American and first woman of color ever to serve in the Western District of New York.

And I’m proud to say Judge Vacca is a Western New Yorker through and through, a Buffalo Law School grad, a longtime resident of the Rochester area, raised in the suburban Town of Greece. Judge Vacca will bring great talent, experience and respect for the law to the Western District of New York court.

The Western District, as I mentioned, stretches from Buffalo to Rochester and many other counties in Western New York. These are places that have benefitted immensely from New York’s great Asian American community.

As the senior senator from New York and as the Majority Leader, I’ve always worked to make New York’s federal bench better reflect the communities it serves. Judge Vacca’s confirmation will mark another major step towards that goal. Judge Vacca's nomination will mark another major step towards that goal.

Judge Vacca has every quality you could possibly want in a jurist: compassionate, tough, legally astute, with a genuine love for her community.

She has spent over 15 years as an attorney, prosecutor, and judge fighting for vulnerable New Yorkers. She has developed a rare institutional knowledge of our state’s and country’s laws, and will bring tremendous legal expertise and experience to the Western District bench.

And notably, once confirmed, Judge Vacca will make the formerly all-male Western District bench fifty-percent female, making it one of the country’s few fifty-percent female benches. One day, I hope this is the norm across the country.

So, I’m proud to support Judge Vacca’s nomination, and I look forward to voting to confirm her later today.

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