FAMM urges Senators to "refrain from filling the vacancies" on the US Sentencing Commission until next year

I reported in this post earlier this week on Prez Trump's (long overdue) nominations to the US Sentencing Commission, a critical criminal justice agency that has been crippled by having only two (of seven) Commissioners in place since the start of 2019.  In my prior post, I speculated that these nomination have been put forward too late in the year before a presidential election to likely move forward.  And now I just saw this letter from the folks at FAMM to Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham and ranking member Dianne Feinstein urging them to refrain from filling the USSC vacancies until next year when the nominees can be properly vetted.  Here is some of the text of the FAMM letter:

The Senate’s role in shaping the composition of the U.S. Sentencing Commission has never been more important.  The commission will play a vital role in the continued implementation of the First Step Act.  The Senate must carefully consider whether nominees will faithfully implement the new reforms passed by Congress or whether they will seek to curtail them.  In addition, the commission must address a federal prison system that has been overwhelmed by the spread of COVID-19.  The deaths to date of 112 federal prisoners and at least one staff member compel serious reflection about various aspects of the federal prison system, including sentence lengths and early release mechanisms, over which the commission has some authority.

Finally, the committee must ensure that nominees to the Sentencing Commission are dedicated to addressing racial discrimination in our justice system.  The commission promulgates guidelines that are used to set prison terms for approximately 70,000 individuals of all races and backgrounds every year.  The legitimacy of those guidelines rests, in part, on the reasonable belief that the commissioners’ decisions are driven by data and evidence, not bias and ideology.  We believe that one important step the Senate can take to promote confidence in the commission’s work is to make sure that its members have diverse backgrounds, as well as varied life and work experiences.

Only seven individuals serve on the commission.  Each one is important.  Given the stakes, especially at this moment, the Senate must thoroughly examine each nominee before that person is awarded a six-year term.  Because there is not enough time left in this session to undertake this careful consideration, we strongly urge you to delay filling the commission’s vacant seats until January.

I do not think I am squinting too hard to read between the lines of this letter by suggesting that it seems one reason FAMM might like to waiting until 2021 to move forward is because FAMM hopes the person in charge of nominations in 2021 might not be the same person who put forward these nominations.

Prior related posts:

• Prez Trump makes (tough) nominations to US Sentencing Commission 
• Lots of notable reaction to Prez Trump's nominations to the US Sentencing Commission
• Another round of criticisms of Prez Trump's decision to nominate Bill Otis to US Sentencing Commission 
• FAMM writes extended letter to Prez Trump to "strongly discourage" re-nomination of Bill Otis to US Sentencing Commission 
• With his return to blogging, is Bill Otis no longer a potential nominee for the US Sentencing Commission? 
• Notable new talk of (badly needed) new nominees for the US Sentencing Commission
• Prez Trump finally announces full slate of (unlikely to be confirmed?) new nominees for the US Sentencing Commission