The committee ordered her nomination to be sent to the full Senate for a vote there, the final step in the confirmation process. The committee acted by voice vote. The vote for Manglona was unanimous. “This is great news, of course, for Judge Manglona,” said Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan. “I didn’t want to wake her, but I did send her an e-mail as soon as the committee acted.
“This is also very good news for the Northern Mariana Islands,” the congressman said.
“We are just one step away from having someone from our islands installed as the Federal District Court judge who presides over our islands. This is a significant milestone in our political development.”
Manglona has moved through the confirmation process quite quickly. President Obama announced that he was nominating the Northern Marianas judge to the federal bench on January 27, 2011. Manglona appeared before the committee on March 16 to take questions. Now, three weeks later the committee has recommended her to the full Senate for confirmation.
While there is no set time period in which the Senate must act, noncontroversial nominations, such as Manglona’s, have been moving to a vote without delay this year.
“Even though the process has been fast,” Kilili said, “I think we are all feeling a little bittersweet today.
“Judge Manglona’s father, Manuel Seman Villagomez, did not live long enough to see his daughter confirmed by the Senate and sworn in to serve on the federal court. That would have made him so proud.”
Villagomez died this month at the age of 87.
“I know he is looking down with a smile at the achievement of his daughter,” the congressman said. “And certainly the entire Villagomez clan and the Manglona family are beaming with pride as Judge Ramona Villagomez Manglona moves through the confirmation process.”
Despite the rapid series of actions in the Senate, the vetting process that preceded took considerable time.
Sablan recommended Manglona to President Obama in December 2009. It took over a year for the White House and the Justice Department to complete their review of her qualifications and personal history before the decision could be made to nominate her for the federal bench.
Kilili thanked Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Ia., for moving Manglona’s nomination swiftly and with bipartisan agreement.
