AREA TOPS FEDERAL JUDGES WISH LIST

WASHINGTON - The federal court system determines more judges are
needed for Central Florida, and area lawmakers vow to make it happen.

The nation's federal judges have recommended that the judicial
district that includes Tampa Bay be allocated five new district court
judges - the largest leap for any area of the country.

Along with U.S. Rep. Charles Canady, a Lakeland Republican whose
district sits in the middle of the Middle District of Florida,
Florida's U.S. senators have vowed to get seven extra federal judges
for the state.

If successful, the bill pushed by Canady and U.S. Sens. Bob Graham,
D-Miami Lakes, and Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, would put five new
judges in the Middle District and two more in the Southern District.

The senators reintroduced their Florida Federal Judgeship Act, and
last month Canady introduced a similar bill in the House, with hopes
that the issue would have a better shot than in years past.

Federal judges are appointed for life, and the Republican majority in
Congress doesn't want to give President Clinton any more spots to
fill, no matter how badly they're needed.

But Canady, who led the fight to impeach and convict Clinton,
disagrees.

The work, not the politics, matters most, Canady said. ``We should not
freeze all the judiciary simply because some people don't like Bill
Clinton making the appointments.''

In recent years, the population and federal caseload has exploded in
the Middle District of Florida. Year after year, it ranks as one of
the busiest of the nation's 94 districts.

The Middle District ranks fifth in the nation in the length of time it
takes to complete a criminal case, and seventh in the nation for
completing civil cases.

``Our district represents 55 percent of the population of Florida.
We're the fourth-largest state in the nation in resident population,''
not even including the region's large tourist, seasonal and migrant
populations, said Chief U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich.
``We have work generated by all those populations.''

Graham called the shortage ``a full-blown crisis'' and failing to fill
the judgeships could help ``Medicare cheats, drug traffickers and a
variety of other criminals'' keep evading prosecution.

In 1997, the U.S. Judicial Conference recommended that the Middle
District be granted three new permanent judgeships and one temporary.

Canady successfully shepherded the measure through the House, but it
failed to move forward in the Senate. Last fall, Graham secured a
promise from powerful Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch,
R- Utah, that he would review the recommendations and the Graham-Mack
bill early this year.

Canady's original bill included the three-judge recommendation, but he
said he will amend it to include five new judges.

Kovachevich, breaking with judicial tradition, plans to make her
fourth lobbying trip to Washington next week.

``We have geared everything we are doing to push for this thing,'' she
said.

Jacqueline Soteropoulos works in Washington and can be reached at (202)
662-7673.